Alzheimer's disease can be diagnosed at its early stage with a high accuracy rate by evaluating the electroencephalogram (EEG) signals.

This was determined by a 3-year, $1.1-million funded National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging study conducted by research faculty and staff at Rowan University (Glassboro, N.J.), the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Drexel University.

According to Dr. Christopher Clark, associate professor of neurology, associate director of the NIH-sponsored Alzheimer's Disease Center at Penn and director of the Penn Memory Center:

"Individuals in the earliest stage of Alzheimer's disease are often not aware of their progressing memory loss, and family members often believe the changes are simply due to aging.

Even the patient's personal physician may be reluctant to initiate an evaluation until a considerable degree of brain failure has occurred. The advantage of using a modified EEG to detect these early changes is that it is non-invasive, simple to do, can be repeated when necessary and can be done in a physician's office.

This makes it an ideal method to screen elderly individuals for the earliest indication of this common scourge of late life."

The study's findings may lead to an earlier diagnosis, and of course earlier treatment and improved quality of life, for people at the earliest stages of this neurodegenerative disease.

These findings have recently been presented in New York City at the Annual International Conference of Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.

Find more details from the full report.

[Photo Credit: Brandeis University]