BBC News | SCOTLAND | Brain scans 'to identify' CJD sufferers

Hospital brain scanners could soon be used to help identify people with the human form of mad cow disease.

Researchers across the UK have found that Magnetic Resonance Imaging equipment is able to identify abnormalities in the central part of the brain peculiar to new variant CJD.

Scientists have been looking for a diagnostic test for the disease which does not involve an operation or post-mortem examination.

Until now accurate diagnosis has relied on examination of brain material under a microscope, either from tissue extracted from a living patient, or after the patient has died.

An MRI scan
MRI scans can identify brain abnormalities
The discovery was made by investigators from the National CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Institute of Neurological Sciences in Glasgow, and the University of Kent.

The scientists analysed MRI scans from 36 patients with nvCJD and 57 others without the disease.

They found that 78% of the nvCJD cases but none of the controls had the tell-tale brain abnormality.

Writing in the Lancet medical journal, they said MRI scans should "facilitate the diagnosis of this form of CJD during the clinical course, avoiding the need for more invasive diagnostic procedures".

The study only involved patients unwell with suspected nvCJD and did not investigate whether MRI scanning could identify people incubating the disease.


		^^ Back to top News Front Page \| World \| UK \| UK Politics \| Business \| Sci/Tech \| Health \| Education \| Entertainment \| Talking Point \| In Depth \| AudioVideo ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To BBC Sport>> \| To BBC Weather>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII\|News Sources\|Privacy