Imaging with Pittsburgh Compound-B (PIB) – An Amyloid Surprise?

New imaging techniques have shown that many cognitively normal elders have as much amyloid protein (thought by some to cause Alzheimer’s) in their brains as do people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Does this mean that these cognitively normal elders are on the brink of developing Alzheimer’s, or does it mean that the amount of amyloid in the brain doesn’t always correlate to the amount of memory loss?

The Alzheimer Research Forum has now posted three parts of a four-part report from the Human Amyloid Imaging Conference. Their report covers the mixed results from studies using evidence Pittsburgh Compound-B (PIB) imaging of amyloid, and the potential effect on early diagnosis and clinical trials.

Comments

[Gail Rae Hudson]

I vaguely recall similar results in The Nun Study. One participant, in particular, who remained what would probably be considered "sharp" and outlived many of the other participants, surprisingly, upon autopsy, was found to have a pretty tangled brain.
Yet another frustrating mystery.