Scans show dramatic brain cell loss in Alzheimer's patients

February 7 2003

Medical researchers say they've charted for the first time the dramatic disappearance of brain cells in Alzheimer's patients.

An international team of researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to chart a 5 per cent annual loss of brain cells in Alzheimer's patients.

The loss is up to 10 per cent in key memory areas.

In contrast, healthy volunteers in the study lost less than 1 per cent of their brain cells a year.

Professor of neurology Paul Thompson says the US researchers were stunned to see a spreading wave of tissue loss.

He says it moved across the brain like a lava flow, destroying more and more tissue as the disease progressed.

The findings could help doctors to see if treatments are helping, and perhaps help chart the course of the disease.

AAP

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