The brain scan, if verified by other studies, could give doctors a way to visualize the plaque and tangles of Alzheimer's in living people, Small says. Right now, doctors give memory tests to diagnose the disease, but the only way to verify the diagnosis is with an autopsy.
The people in the study all got a PET scan that analyzes the amount of the chemical marker in the brain. The team found that people with advanced Alzheimer's disease had lots of marker accumulating in areas of the brain hit hardest.
Some of the people with mild memory problems also had scan results that indicated they had the start of Alzheimer's, Small says.
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