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Medical hopes for 2013: MRI may help diagnose dementia

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    Disease affects an estimated 35.6 million people

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Topics today but first this Sunday we're taking a look at some of the medical hopes -- doctors and scientists -- for 2013.

Beginning wet.

Dementia that's a disease affecting an estimated 35 point six.

Million people doctors are hoping to use MRI scans to help diagnose the condition doctors money.

-- when you think of alzheimer's or dementia the first that comes to mind is is someone in their seventies or eighties.

All -- their population that they believe the house for get where they came from forget the keys that's usually the image that comes and there's a soft type of dementia that we're talking today this is their front -- Temporal dementia it's a sub category about 20% of these patients.

Get this this is it actually happens and -- younger population.

So we're talking -- people in their forties and fifties that you're doing just fine and all of a sudden -- memory goes they start acting completely different behavior.

The frontal part of the brain has to do with the personality.

-- -- the memory in the language and other things so all of a sudden.

They go from being completely normal to be a very bizarre behavior.

And so did do it there way to diagnose disease to do a Spinal Tap you have to really get some -- from spinal fluid it's an invasive procedure.

It works and about 75% of the time but now there's a new study from University of Pennsylvania.

Publish this in numerology and what they're finding is the use of MRI looking at the brain DC there -- changes.

This disease is also known as picks disease that's what allowed neurologist called us because they're changes in the nervous system and that part of -- it's a focal.

-- only part of the brain is affected.

And so having the MRI and early diagnosis.

Is extremely helpful we have parents that they see their kids just completely like wasting away in the front of their eyes.

Using -- MRI is going to be able to give us that -- isn't currently.

And hopefully intervention and treatment.

So daddy knows that it -- you could have this I mean.

Just forgetting things all the time are well actor actually -- the key here is to try to differentiated from alzheimer's disease which is five million people a year.

And it's actually sometimes very hard to differentiate now this type of -- that David was talking about tends to affect younger people.

And the characteristic is loss of emotional -- in the words you withdraw you don't have your social skills anymore you don't you get depressed initially but then you get wanted.

But it's very hard to use that as a criteria to differentiate from alzheimer's and since we're coming up -- more and more treatments for alzheimer's that David and I've been talking about.

2012 this year targeting the beta amyloid protein we don't want to make that mistake we want to know earlier on.

So Duke University did a study where they figured out that using MRIs using pet scans and as David mentioned using spinal fluid.

They can differentiate in a large percentage of that cases between -- timers.

And frontal temporal dementia but but now a new study out of -- is saying only -- -- may be enough that's very exciting -- if we can.

Use an MRI -- the -- this type of MRI.

To tell us different types of dementia will know which one to target with our new treatments you -- -- -- scams that -- -- -- is a -- that looks at the heat.

How much radiation or how much heat something gives off that's very expensive and to take someone who's debilitated.

Unit was having problems with dimension to start given them spinal taps and start putting them and pet scanners where they.

Take several hours you'll be a lot better if we could just use -- -- alone and then get right to -- It's its final tab obviously it's an invasive procedure of the involves bleeding infection some people are allergic.

Well -- they can have reaction to it but it's also very expensive and would MRI it's obviously less invasive and we can get him in earlier diagnosis.

It's a big advancement in the field and this here actually if you look at all of the top of -- recovery in 2012.

Outsider was one of the topics that kept coming in so a lot of advances are being made in this and that's -- -- talk about advances this and.

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