I knew I had heart plaque but now brain plaque. Lilly has actually stated the drug should not be used to diagnose Alzheimer’s as one in five patients that are diagnosed are found to not have the disease when autopsies are performed.
I am guessing that the more plaque that is found the more additional tests 
this could lead to as well. The drug was rejected last year as the FDA felt that it could lead to misdiagnosing and not catching other neurological diseases, which makes sense to me. If there is no brain plaque, then items like depression or side effects from other medications could be at the root so here we go again with making sure all know what medications one is taking. BD
-----------------
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the radioactive dye, called Amyvid, to help doctors rule out whether patients have Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia, Lilly announced late on Friday.
The dye binds to clumps of a toxic protein called beta amyloid that accumulates in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's. Doctors can then see the plaque light up on a positron emission tomography, or PET, scan.
Patients with Alzheimer's always have some brain plaque, so its absence in the test would tell doctors to look for other causes of mental decline, such as depression or medications, Lilly has said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/07/us-fda-lilly-amyvid-idUSBRE8360C220120407
No comments:
Post a Comment