Imaging Alzheimer's Disease

A new 3-D brain imaging technique has given researchers a structured look at brain damage caused by Alzheimer's disease, which now affects about 4.5 million Americans.
The team of University of California Los Angeles researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from 24 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI)—or decreased mental function not caused by disease—and 25 others with mild Alzheimer’s disease. The research team found that patients with mild Alzheimer’s had 10 to 20 percent more atrophy, or damage, in cortical areas of the brain than did MCI