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CNN Live Today

New Technique Offers Hope For Alzeheimer's Patients

Aired June 24, 2002 - 14:57   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In their constant battle to stop or even turn back the effect of Alzheimer's disease, doctors are testing a technique that some have called brainwashing. CNN medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland tells us about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Seventy- two year old Fletcher Barnes can play the saxophone, shoot about a 90 on the golf course and, for better or worse, take care of his yard. But ask him when he started playing the sax.

FLETCHER BARNES, ALZHEIMER'S STUDY CASE: Gosh. How long have I been playing the horn?

ROWLAND: His wife answered, "since high school." How about a more recent memory, like what he had to eat for lunch, which he did just minutes before this interview.

BARNES: I forget what was on the -- what did you put on the lettuce, Jane? I forgot.

JANE BARNES, FLETCHER'S WIFE: We had tuna fish.

F. BARNES: Tuna fish, yes.

ROWLAND: That's what it's like to live with mild Alzheimer's disease.

F. BARNES: It's frustrating, really, sometimes. But yet, I -- I do most anything I want to do, don't I?

ROWLAND: And that's how he'd like things to stay. So now he's just hours away from taking his chances on a new experimental therapy called COGNIShunt, that's designed essentially to wash the brain of Alzheimer's toxins.

Researchers think toxins stagnate in the brain. So the idea is to wash out the toxins with the shot and slow down memory loss.

(on camera): The COGNIShunt procedure sounds easy. After all, doctors have been using shots for other medical conditions for years.

But other Alzheimer's researchers say the procedure is risky. After all, it is brain surgery. And there's just one small study suggesting the procedure might help Alzheimer's patients.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There certainly are skeptics and there are going to remain skeptics. The more ideas that get tested, the more likely we are to find a cure.

ROWLAND (voice-over): It will take about two years for doctors to find out if this experiment worked. Just days before his surgery, Fletcher Barnes told us what he was hoping for.

(on camera): Would you think surgery would be a success if it held you right where you are right now today?

F. BARNES: Yes, I think it will. That would be a success, if it would stop it. I would hope for a little more, but I will settle for that.

ROWLAND: Rhonda Rowland, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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