Скачать или смотреть Study uses magnetic stimulation to detect dementia

(23 May 2016) LEAD IN:
Neurologists are to begin a trial to discover whether transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS on the brain can alert doctors to the earliest signs of Alzheimer's disease.
Despite millions of people being afflicted by dementia, scientists are still searching for a way to diagnose the disease before it destroys the brain.

STORY-LINE:
This man is about to undergo a non-invasive procedure called TMS.
Researchers create a magnetic field from a wire coil placed over his head to create electrical currents in specific parts of the brain.
The procedure is not a treatment, but scientists hope it may offer a way to detect Alzheimer's before the brain becomes clogged with sticky plaques which damage our ability to communicate.
Patients are asked the same questions they would face if they were having an MRI as the procedure isn't suitable for people with metal objects in their bodies.
The researcher first carefully measures his study volunteer's motor threshold - the amount of current needed to make the volunteer's thumb twitch.
Because each person has a different motor threshold, the researcher needs to personalise the settings to determine the minimum amount of energy they need to stimulate the brain.
Scientists at the Institute of Neurology at University College London (UCL) point out that this is not a potential treatment for Alzheimer's.
Their study is investigating whether using TMS can be used as a technique to differentiate between patients and a control group.
They hope TMS will be a useful tool to diagnose Alzheimer's before the brain becomes clogged with sticky plaques which damage our ability to communicate.
Lead researcher Professor John Rothwell says: "What we're looking at in that particular part of the brain is a particular pathway that connects some of the neurons in that brain that uses the neurotransmitter acetylcholine."
Rothwell goes on to explain that the TMS is used to detect the level of acetylcholine.
He says: "Now acetylcholine is a transmitter that's affected by Alzheimer's disease, it's one the things that's affected and its level tends to go down a bit. So when we test this connection that we know uses this particular transmitter, what we're expecting to see in the Alzheimer's patients is that this connection doesn't work quite as well as normal."
There are 46-million people in the world who have dementia according to a global report from Alzheimer's Disease International.
It says that number is expected to exceed 131 million by 2050.
Despite so many people being affected, there is no clinically proven treatment - even detecting the disease before it harms the brain is difficult.
The research going on here won't change the overall picture, but the researchers argue this may prove to be one more tool with which we can tackle Alzheimer's disease.
The Alzheimer's patients taking part in the trial will be prescribed the drug donepezil.
Neurologist Dr. Basil Ridha is part of the trial team.
He says: "There are different networks in the brains and each network may rely on a certain chemical, so acetylcholine is just one of those chemicals, but it's the one that we think is pretty, or significantly involved in Alzheimer's disease."
Ridha explains what will happen to patients during the trial.
Donepezil is prescribed to increase the amount of acetylcholine in the brain and thereby ease the dementia symptoms such as memory loss.
According to Rothwell, TMS cold help better understand how Alzheiner's affects the brain.
So far they have only managed to recruit one Alzheimer's patient.
The team have until October to find the rest.

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