More Than 5 Million Americans Now Have Alzheimer's
(HealthDay News, 3/20/07)

The Alzheimer's Association reports that Alzheimer’s disease has increased 10% over the past five years and is reaching epidemic proportions. Now a joint study conducted by Austin Health, the University of Melbourne (Australia), Neuroscience Victoria (Australia), Avid, the University of Pennsylvania and Bayer Schering Pharma, has found that an imaging agent developed by a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania and licensed by Avid, binds to beta-amyloid deposits in the brain, making it easier to diagnose the condition. When investigators injected five subjects who had mild Alzheimer's disease and six healthy controls with AV-1 three hours before administering scans, the PET images clearly identified the patients with Alzheimer’s.