Time until dementia symptoms appear can be estimated via brain scan

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centerge
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Time until dementia symptoms appear can be estimated via brain scan

Post by centerge »

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 122052.htm

What I found most interesting is this concept of a tipping point with amyloid beta accumulation.

I saw a presentation recently that looked at the data from this research. The rate of progression (or accumulation of amyloid beta) was different for different people until the tipping point of standard uptake value ratio (SUVR) of 1.2 was reached. Following that, the slopes of progression were the same.

Has anybody heard of getting a pet scan with the SUVR metric applied?
NF52
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Re: Time until dementia symptoms appear can be estimated via brain scan

Post by NF52 »

centerge wrote:https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 122052.htm

What I found most interesting is this concept of a tipping point with amyloid beta accumulation.

I saw a presentation recently that looked at the data from this research. The rate of progression (or accumulation of amyloid beta) was different for different people until the tipping point of standard uptake value ratio (SUVR) of 1.2 was reached. Following that, the slopes of progression were the same.

Has anybody heard of getting a pet scan with the SUVR metric applied?
Hi centerge,

Amyloid PET scans are primarily used in research and in clinical trials of anti-amyloid drugs, so are not available to the general public. Even in cases where people have amyloid in the brain and are told of that either at the beginning or at the end of a clinical trial, they have not generally been informed, to my knowledge, of how much their own amyloid levels changed if they were on the treatment drug, or on the placebo. That may change in the future, as clinical trial participants are advocating for more transparency and data-sharing during or after trial participation. But if you were looking to find this out for yourself, it's not likely to be possible outside of a clinical trial, since insurance does not typically pay for PET scans

I read the study itself last week and what impressed me more than the idea of predicting any one person's future progression (it's more of a range of trends) was the realizations that getting to the diagnosis of dementia from cognitive and daily living symptoms is a 25 year process for many people, with a long period where amyloid may be cleared from the brain before it gets to that threshold of 1.2 which signals an escalation to an elevated threshold of somewhere between 3.0 or 4.0. That early period may be the next fertile ground for research into "primary prevention"--prevention of a disease before the disease can even begin. The team at Washington University in St. Louis is well-respected, but I suspect that other groups will now seek to look back at PET scans and see if they can confirm those same timelines.

I've heard Dr. Paul Aisen, an AD researcher, predict that within 10 years we may have treatments in high risk people with strong family history or ApoE 4/4 to prevent amyloid beta and tau deposits without possibly dangerous side effects seen in aducanumab and other study drugs that require 1.5-3 years to remove elevated amyloid.
4/4 and still an optimist!
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