Research report 2003 - Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research
Early diagnosis of Neurodegenerative Diseases to Prevent Dementia
Authors
Herholz, Karl & Heiss. Wolf-Dieter
Departments
Allgemeine Neurologie (Prof. Dr. Wolf-Dieter Heiss)
MPI für neurologische Forschung, Köln
Summary
Prevention of dementia by early diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease, in particular Alzheimer’s disease, and efficient testing of neuroprotective drugs is an important goal in all industrialized countries because of the prolongation of life span. With positron emission tomography (PET) we can identify a high-risk group of non-demented patients with mild cognitive impairment who have a very high likelihood to progress to dementia within 1-2 years. With this technique, one can also directly compare and validate animal models of neurodegenerative disease with human disease and test specific therapeutic approaches.