Neuro Imaging

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a chemical compound that detects the Alzheimer’s protein amyloid beta better than current FDA-approved agents. The compound potentially may be used in brain scans to identify people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease. In the image, the compound has passed from the bloodstream of a living mouse into its brain, where it is detected by a positron emission tomography (PET) scan. Arrows indicate clumps of amyloid beta. Credit Ping Yan and Jin-Moo Lee.

MRI scans of patients with radiation necrosis (above) and cancer recurrence (below) are shown in the left column. Close-ups in the center column show the regions are indistinguishable on routine scans. Radiomic descriptors unearth subtle differences showing radiation necrosis, in the upper right panel, has less heterogeneity, shown in blue, compared to cancer recurrence, in the lower right, which has a much higher degree of heterogeneity, shown in red. Credit: Pallavi Tiwari

Comparing a PET scan of an NFL player’s brain, left, and an MRI of a former high school football player’s brain shows similar suspected CTE pathology in the midbrain. Image courtesy of UCLA Health.

Example of the iDISCO technique to image brain samples containing Alzheimer’s disease, which could have major impact on treatment. For more inages and videos view the article online at www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(16)30814-2