Detecting Alzheimer’s Without Autopsies

The main method to determine whether a person truly was afflicted with Alzheimer’s or not has been by doing an autopsy and examining the brain after death.  Sometimes this could be achieved by obtaining brain tissue by surgery while the person was still alive.  However, this was an invasive procedure.

Research by a team of scientists from David Geffen School of Medicine at the Univ. of California in Los Angeles indicates they have developed a non-invasive method of detecting Alzheimer’s “markers” by using a PET scan.  (Positron Emission Tomography)