Doctors working to treat Alzheimer's

Living with Alzheimer’s whether it's you or your family member can be difficult. But what if there was a way to detect the disease in it's early stages and hopefully treat it?

Professionals are trying to do just that at Rhode Island Mood and Memory Research Institute.

Technology allows for many medical advancements; one of which deals with Alzheimer’s. Dr. John Stoukides, Medical Director at Rhode Island Mood and Memory Research Institute said “we used to just diagnose Alzheimer's on clinical grounds which is what your average doc does with a cat scan or an MRI and an exam and now what we've been doing these specialized PET scannings that are only available to research subjects”.

Dr. Stoukides is looking for those in the early stages of Alzheimer’s to help.

"Right now we're enrolling in clinical trials in what's called a passive vaccination in Alzheimer’s. We're giving them antibodies to help their bodies rid themselves of the plaque in their brain,” he said.

An injection of dye will make the amyloid plaque in the brain visible.

"Amyloid plaque is what we think causes Alzheimer's disease. Basically it will tells us, yes there is amyloid plaque and that's probably what's causing their memory loss or no there isn't any and chances are they don't have alzheimer's and maybe we should be looking at other diagnoses with the person as opposed to thinking it's Alzheimer's,” said Stoukides.

The difference between the brain of an Alzheimer patient and one without the disease is clear.

“People getting involved in clinical trials have an extra step in helping us maintain a diagnostic accuracy with them,” Stoukides added.

No matter the results of the PET scan, families will have an answer.

“Either it tells you that the memory loss the person is suffering from is not Alzheimer's which means that really we need to step back and readdress our diagnosis,” said Stoukides.

Eligible candidates for this trial are men and women ages 50 to 80, who have mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.

Visit http://www.rimmri.com/ for information on enrollment in the clinical trials provided by Rhode Island Mood and Memory Research Institute