Analyzing Structural Brain Changes in Alzheimer's Disease ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2009) — In a study that promises to improve diagnosis and monitoring of Alzheimer's disease, scientists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a fast and accurate method for quantifying subtle, sub-regional brain volume loss using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). 利用微小区域性的大脑容量的痿缩，UCSD的科学家们发展出一个快且准确的方法 ，改进诊断与监测阿兹海默症。 The study will be published the week of November 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 这研究会在11/16的PNAS中刊出。 By applying the techniques to the newly completed dataset of the multi-institution Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), the scientists demonstrated that such sub-regional brain volume measurements outperform available measures for tracking severity of Alzheimer's disease, including widely used cognitive testing and measures of global brain-volume loss. 这个技术应用在新完成的ADNI(Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative)，科学 家们展示区域性的大脑容积是可以区隔出阿兹海默症。ADNI包涵广泛使用的认知测验以及 全脑容积痿缩。 The general pattern of brain atrophy resulting from Alzheimer's disease has long been known through autopsy studies, but exploiting this knowledge toward accurate diagnosis and monitoring of the disease has only recently been made possible by improvements in computational algorithms that automate identification of brain structures with MRI. The new methods described in the study provide rapid identification of brain sub-regions combined with measures of change in these regions across time. The methods require at least two brain scans to be performed on the same MRI scanner over a period of several months. The new research shows that changes in the brain's memory regions, in particular a region of the temporal lobe called the entorhinal cortex, offer sensitive measures of the early stages of the disease. 从对屍体的解剖可以知道大脑的痿缩是阿兹海默症的症状。但利用这个概念做更准确的诊 断与监控，只有最近可自动化圈出大脑结构的演算法提出才变得可能。新方法可提供大量 区域性的辨识也可以量测随着时间产生的变化。这种方法需要两次以上不同时间的脑结构 影像，最好是相距几个月。这研究显示，大脑记忆区域特别是颞叶的entorhinal cortex的 变化，可以提供早期的疾病诊断。 "Loss of volume in the hippocampus is a consistent finding when using MRI, and is a reliable predictor of cognitive decline," said Anders M. Dale, PhD, professor of neurosciences and radiology at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, who led the study. "However, we have now developed and validated imaging biomarkers to not only track brain atrophy, but distinguish the early stages of Alzheimer's disease from changes related to normal aging." "利用MRI发现海马回的容积减少是很一致的，对认知衰弱是一个可信任的预测者。" Anders M. Dale表示。"然而，我们发展了一套有效的影像标志不仅可以追踪大脑痿缩， 也可以早期区分阿兹海默症以及年龄的影响。" The researchers at dozens of sites across the U.S. studied nearly 300 patients with mild cognitive impairment, 169 healthy controls and 129 subjects with AD and then measured rates of sub-regional cerebral volume change for each group. Power calculations were performed to identify regions that would provide the most sensitive outcome measures in clinical trials of disease-modifying agents. 研究者分布在US的很多地方，收集了300个轻微认知功能丧失者、169个正常人以及 129个阿兹海默病患，去量测每组的区域性大脑容积改变。利用大量的运算去指出哪个地方 会在临床试验中给予病程改变药物之下有最敏感的结果。 "The technique is extremely powerful, because it allows a researcher to examine exactly how much brain-volume loss has occurred in each region of the brain, including cortical regions, where we know the bad proteins of Alzheimer's disease build up," said study co-author James Brewer, MD, PhD, a neurologist and assistant professor in the Departments of Radiology and Neurosciences at UC San Diego. "We are particularly excited to use the techniques in new clinical trials, but also to reexamine old clinical trial data where global measures of brain shrinkage were applied. These new findings suggest that such global measures are less sensitive than regional measures for detecting the changes specific to Alzheimer's disease -- the changes these drugs are targeting." "这个技术是强而有力的，它让研究者可以准确的检视脑中的各区域容积如何减少，包含 皮质区，这里我们知道有不好的蛋白质让阿兹海默症增强。"James Brewer说。"我们特别 的兴奋去使用这新的技术在新的临床试验中，但也可以重新审视旧的临床试验的资料，当 时是量测全脑的痿缩。这个新的发现指出旧的全脑量测对阿兹海默症以及药物目标区域造 成的改变比较没有敏感度" Additional contributors to the study include Dominic Holland, Donald J. Hagler and Christine Fennema-Notestine of UC San Diego and members of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. ADNI is funded in part by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. Anders Dale is a founder and holds equity in CorTechs Labs, Inc, and also serves on its Scientific Advisory Board. About ADNI The five-year, $60 million Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), a landmark research study to identify brain and other biological changes associated with memory decline, was launched in 2004 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The project was begun by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the NIH and is supported by more than a dozen other federal agencies and private-sector companies and organizations, making it the largest public-private partnership on brain research underway at the NIH. Investigators at 58 sites across the United States and Canada are involved with the study. The goal of the initiative is to speed up the search for treatments and cures for Alzheimer's disease by seeing whether imaging of the brain -- through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or positron emission tomography (PET) scans, together with other biomarkers -- can help predict and monitor the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease. -- 有翻错请指正罗。 原网址： http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091116165737.htm --

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