Nutritional drink, imaging show promise for Alzheimer's (part 2)

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(CNN)

Scanning for the earliest signs

While the Souvenaid study focused on the loss of synapses as the mechanism behind Alzheimer's symptoms, an Italian group is working on identifying a different marker of the condition.

In a study published in the journal Neurology, researchers showed that a kind of MRI called diffusion tensor imaging may pick up signs of Alzheimer's in healthy elderly individuals.

Lead author Dr. Giovanni Carlesimo, of Tor Vergata University and the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome, Italy, said the findings are preliminary but could be useful for future drug therapies to target the specific brain changes shown on the scan.

Researchers looked at the hippocampus, the brain structure associated with memory. They found that the mean diffusivity of the hippocampus -- a measure of how water is distributed within the tissues -- was correlated with how well participants performed on tests of verbal and visual-spatial memory.

The mean diffusivity in the hippocampus, as reflected in this brain scan, could represent some of the earliest structural changes that occur in the early stages of Alzheimer's, researchers say.

The research was done on 76 healthy people ages 20 to 80. The effect was most pronounced in the over-50-year-olds, the scientists reported.

The study is an important demonstration that MRI can be used to understand age-associated changes in the brain, said Adam Brickman, assistant professor of neuropsychology at Columbia University Medical Center.

But Brickman cautioned that this does not mean everyone should request this test.

"This might be something that will be useful down the road, but it's not diagnostic right now," he said.