DEVELOPMENT OF DIAGNOSTIC TESTS OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE: THE ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPH

Thursday, April 2, 2009 4:12

There have of course been many other approaches to developing diagnostic tests for Alzheimer’s disease. Several of these approaches have been widely reported in the media in recent years and none more so than techniques which involve an analysis of the electrical activity of the brain.

Most people are familiar with the ECG (electrocardiograph), which is a technique used to measure the electrical activity of the heart and is very useful in diagnosing many cardiac conditions. The equivalent device for the brain is known as an EEG (electroencephalograph), and is a lot more complicated. It certainly does appear as if there are some changes in the brain waves in people with Alzheimer’s disease, but again they haven’t been found to be sufficiently specific to form the basis of a reliable test. Further refinement of the measurement of these very complicated patterns of brain electrical activity and the way in which they alter with the disease may, however, one day prove helpful.

It is essential that reliable diagnostic indicators for Alzheimer’s disease are developed, for without them, clinical trial of the newer and more hopeful therapeutic strategies will be difficult to interpret, counselling of relatives of sufferers will be hampered, as now, and the search for underlying causes will not progress.