Rochester site for Alzheimer's study

he University will take part in one of the largest Alzheimer's studies to date, a $60 million effort led by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to test whether new imaging techniques and other technology can be better used to assess and treat patients with memory loss and dementia.

Pierre Tariot, professor of psychiatry, of medicine, and of neurology, helped design the five-year Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative that will begin in April 2005 and will include 800 participants at 50 sites around the nation and in Canada, including at least 20 people in the Rochester area.

The University was recently recognized by the NIA as the lead site for the nationwide Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study, enrolling more patients than any other place in the country. Tariot's research efforts, more than 1,200 patients from the Rochester area have taken part in Alzheimer's studies since 1998; Rochester is the only upstate New York community taking part in the new initiative.

"Rochester has achieved nationwide attention as a community of citizens concerned about Alzheimer's, dedicated to helping to find answers. All of us, patients and possible future patients alike, are grateful for this support," says Tariot.

The new study will help fill a gap in knowledge about how Alzheimer's disease progresses, giving researchers a clearer picture, literally, of memory loss at its earliest stages. Doctors and nurses will use sophisticated imaging technology and other tests to watch what happens in the brain when an older person who has normal memory gaps develops more serious cognitive problems or even Alzheimer's disease.

"This will help us focus on those people at highest risk for the disease," Tariot says. "We have nothing short of an epidemic on our hands: Currently there are approximately 4.5 million Americans with dementia, and that number is expected to triple over the next four decades."

In Rochester, the study will include extensive participation from physicians and other researchers in the Division of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology of the Department of Radiology at Strong Memorial Hospital, where the PET and MRI scans will be conducted. The local portion of the study will be led by Tariot, who is a member of the Center for Aging and Developmental Biology.

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