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American Morning
Paging Dr. Gupta: Alzheimer's Disease
Aired December 23, 2003 - 08:44 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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: About 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's Disease and one-third of Americans known someone affected by it, A Gallup poll finds. Now researchers, who are looking for a way to detect Alzheimer's early, are reporting some progress.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from the CNN Center with details.
Good morning, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Anderson.
Yes, everyone probably knows what Alzheimer's Disease is. More difficult has been trying to figure out who is going to develop it. That's been the subject of quite a bit of research now. A study out of the University of California Irvine, finding out that patients with Down Syndrome, people with Down Syndrome, actually more likely to develop Alzheimer's than the general population. What is it about their brains that makes them more predisposed? Well, that's what they tried to figure out. And what they figured out is there are certain areas in the brain that actually develop sort of a hyperactivity before they burn out, sort of think of it like a burning out star. Those areas in yellow on the top row of film, this is a scan of the brain, by the way. Those areas of yellow show hyperactivity. And then over time that hyperactivity essentially dwindles away, and those areas of the brain called the temporal areas of the brain, and subsequently, that can lead to a burned out situation, also making more likely to have dementia.
You can see another angle there as well. This has been the subject of quite a bit of research for some time, trying to figure out how brains change in people who develop Alzheimer's, where are these hyperactivities, and where do they slowly burn out over time? The question, more important question being, what do you do about it? Is there a way that you can use this information to scan the general population? That has been studied as well. There's something known as PET scans and something known as MRI scans. Basically, a PET scan is a scan to look at the various function of the brain, show where the activity's actually higher. You can get those tests as well for the general population. You can take a look. It's a pretty accurate test. It will give you images like the ones you saw, but fairly expensive. An MRI scan as well, available, commonly used, much more affordable to try to figure this out. This is interesting, Anderson, sort of cutting edge stuff. Don't know if this is going to be something used for the general population over time, but this is something that may be out there in the future -- Anderson. COOPER: Yes, there's still no treatment for it. There's some medication out there, but even if you know in advance that, you know, you are predisposed to this, there's not that much to do, is that correct?
GUPTA You ask a great question, the question, what do you do with this information subsequently? And there are some things. But there are two ways of looking at this. One is if you have more information as to what's possibly causing dementia/Alzheimer's disease, you might be able to develop new treatments. The other arm of that is saying, well, if you basically know who's going to develop it, could you throw some of the existing, preventative treatments at them? That's a possibility as well. That's going to sort of be down the line. But the sort of exciting thing is here, for a long time, no one's known what specifically happens in the early onset of Alzheimer's. This might be an answer there -- Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks very much.
GUPTA: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 23, 2003 - 08:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: About 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's Disease and one-third of Americans known someone affected by it, A Gallup poll finds. Now researchers, who are looking for a way to detect Alzheimer's early, are reporting some progress.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from the CNN Center with details.
Good morning, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Anderson.
Yes, everyone probably knows what Alzheimer's Disease is. More difficult has been trying to figure out who is going to develop it. That's been the subject of quite a bit of research now. A study out of the University of California Irvine, finding out that patients with Down Syndrome, people with Down Syndrome, actually more likely to develop Alzheimer's than the general population. What is it about their brains that makes them more predisposed? Well, that's what they tried to figure out. And what they figured out is there are certain areas in the brain that actually develop sort of a hyperactivity before they burn out, sort of think of it like a burning out star. Those areas in yellow on the top row of film, this is a scan of the brain, by the way. Those areas of yellow show hyperactivity. And then over time that hyperactivity essentially dwindles away, and those areas of the brain called the temporal areas of the brain, and subsequently, that can lead to a burned out situation, also making more likely to have dementia.
You can see another angle there as well. This has been the subject of quite a bit of research for some time, trying to figure out how brains change in people who develop Alzheimer's, where are these hyperactivities, and where do they slowly burn out over time? The question, more important question being, what do you do about it? Is there a way that you can use this information to scan the general population? That has been studied as well. There's something known as PET scans and something known as MRI scans. Basically, a PET scan is a scan to look at the various function of the brain, show where the activity's actually higher. You can get those tests as well for the general population. You can take a look. It's a pretty accurate test. It will give you images like the ones you saw, but fairly expensive. An MRI scan as well, available, commonly used, much more affordable to try to figure this out. This is interesting, Anderson, sort of cutting edge stuff. Don't know if this is going to be something used for the general population over time, but this is something that may be out there in the future -- Anderson. COOPER: Yes, there's still no treatment for it. There's some medication out there, but even if you know in advance that, you know, you are predisposed to this, there's not that much to do, is that correct?
GUPTA You ask a great question, the question, what do you do with this information subsequently? And there are some things. But there are two ways of looking at this. One is if you have more information as to what's possibly causing dementia/Alzheimer's disease, you might be able to develop new treatments. The other arm of that is saying, well, if you basically know who's going to develop it, could you throw some of the existing, preventative treatments at them? That's a possibility as well. That's going to sort of be down the line. But the sort of exciting thing is here, for a long time, no one's known what specifically happens in the early onset of Alzheimer's. This might be an answer there -- Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks very much.
GUPTA: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
