With sophisticated brain imaging tests now making their way out of research labs or clinical trials, and into the doctor’s office, both patients and physicians will have to confront some important ethical and legal questions on how these tests are used. That’s the message from a seminar on amyloid imaging, hosted by the American Academy [...]

Rising Dementia Rates are a Global Health Trend A positive aspect of rising living standards in most of the world has been a significant improvement in worldwide average life expectancies, increasing from 52 years in 1960 to 69 years in 2009. Regional differences are even more striking — the average life expectancy for a person [...]

After the disaster known as bapineuzumab Phase III, I think it’s time to seriously question whether clearing amyloid beta deposits from the brain has any therapeutic benefit to Alzheimer’s patients. The bapi Phase III results speak with a resounding “No”. We are still awaiting Phase III results from Eli Lilly’s solanezumab, but the current prognosis [...]

A research team at Washington University School of Medicine just published the results of a study that looked at a number of cognitive changes and biomarkers that can be used to predict the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease long before symptoms appear – in some cases up to 20 years before symptom onset. The study, published [...]

The PLoS ONE science journal published an interesting study performed by the Brain and Aging Research Program at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The study sampled apolipoprotein levels in blood samples from over 600 older adults participating in the ongoing Sydney Memory and Aging Study. Apolipoproteins are proteins that transport cholesterol [...]