Jacksonville, FL: Hospice Patients Aid in Research
Here is a very interesting article from The New York Times about a promising way to research Alzheimer’s.
By Gina Kolata
About 11 a.m. on May 19, Dr. Thomas Beach, a pathologist at Banner Sun Health Research Institute in Sun City, Ariz., stood in front of a long metal table, wearing gloves and an apron, and held up the brain of Patient 36 in an Avid Radiopharmaceuticals study.
He was about to perform a brain autopsy as part of a study asking if Avid’s new scans were accurately showing Alzheimer plaque.
Avid’s study required results from 35 patients and the company enrolled 145 hospice patients. They agreed to be scanned before they died and then have their brains examined after death to see if the Avid system worked.
Dr. Beach knew nothing of Patient 36 except his age, 90, and his sex. He began by putting the brain in a plexiglass holder, slicing it like a loaf of bread. (A brain has the consistency of tofu, he said.) Then he spent more than an hour dissecting more than 100 tiny pieces out of specific areas of the slices — far more than would be done for an ordinary autopsy that asks only if plaque is present.
For the best in Alzheimer’s Home Care, please visit Comfort Keepers at http://alzheimershomecaresolutions.com/.
