Health
Alzheimer's study would measure cognitive impairment
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Nov. 1, 2004
A new Alzheimer's disease study will be exploring whether brain imaging technologies, biomarkers and clinical and neuropsychological assessments can be combined to measure the progression of the mild cognitive impairment that marks early Alzheimer's disease.
The study is intended to help speed the development of treatments and monitor their effectiveness. The new initiative was announced on Oct. 13, at the AMA's Annual Science Reporters Conference held in Washington, D.C.
The $60 million, five-year-study will enroll 800 adults at 50 sites across the U.S. and Canada. It is a novel public-private effort of the National Institute on Aging, the Alzheimer's Assn., several pharmaceutical and imaging equipment companies, the Institute for the Study of Aging and other government agencies.
Recruitment of subjects ages 55 to 90 will begin in April 2005. Two hundred cognitively normal individuals will be followed for three years, 400 people with mild cognitive impairments will also be followed for three years and 200 people with early Alzheimer's disease will be followed for two years.
Data produced by the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative is to be made public quickly to further the goal of hastening discoveries.
There are currently no drugs that halt the disease, and the aging of the population is expected to boost the numbers of people with Alzheimer's disease in the near future.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/11/01/hlbf1101.htm.
