About Alzheimer's disease

Millions of people around the world suffer from dementia. The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer's disease – a degenerative brain disease caused by the build-up of a protein called amyloid in the brain tissue and a protein named tau that accumulates in the nerve cells. These plaque accumulations cause progressive degeneration that leads to the death of nerve cells in the brain.

How is Alzheimer's disease diagnosed?

In most cases, patients who experience symptoms of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, such as difficulty with memory or other thinking functions, which may include disorientation, language difficulties, or speech problems – still do not show harm to their daily functioning. These patients are diagnosed by three different medical specialists: a neurologist, a certified geriatric physician, and a geriatric psychiatrist.

Unique Assuta scanning services

Sometimes it is difficult for traditional doctors to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease accurately. Therefore, Assuta offers diagnosis using PET-CT scanning.

During the scan, the Assuta physician infuses the biological marker, flutemetamol f-18, into the patient via IV. (A commercial option is Vizamyl.) This material accumulates in the brain plaque, which is picked up by the PET-CT scan. If amyloid has not accumulated in the brain, the PET-CT scan will show a normal dispersion of the material, indicating that the patient does not have Alzheimer’s disease. Amyloid buildup in the brain could indicate Alzheimer’s disease.