The paper:
K.E. Pike et al., “Beta-amyloid imaging and memory in non-demented individuals: evidence for preclinical Alzheimer’s disease,” Brain, 130:2837–44, 2007. (Cited in 83 papers)
The finding:
One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the build-up of the abnormal peptide ß-amyloid in the brain, although it’s not clear just how amyloid is involved in the disease. To determine whether ß-amyloid levels correlate with memory loss in general, Christopher Rowe at the Austin Hospital in Australia and his colleagues compared the amount of ß-amyloid in normal adults and patients with varying degrees of memory loss. They found that patients with even early signs of memory impairment had higher levels of amyloid than normal adults.
The caveat:
Among patients with established Alzheimer’s disease, those with more memory loss did not have higher levels of amyloid, a finding supported by earlier studies.
The implications: The paper “suggests that the amyloid is ...
