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By Meghan Yost, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- According to recent data from the Alzheimers Association, every 71 seconds someone develops Alzheimers disease, the seventh leading cause of death in the United States; but a new laser eye scanning device is providing hope of diagnosing the degenerative condition early.
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Engineers at Neuroptix Corporation in Acton, Mass., are developing a non-invasive laser eye scanning device to detect the presence of beta-amyloid (BA) plaque in the eye -- a protein widely associated with the disease. The device is based on the discovery that these plaques form on the lens of the eye, in addition to the brain.
The only definitive diagnosis for the disease today is brain pathology -- the presence of plaques and tangles in the brain, Evan A. Sherr, vice president of product management and an engineer at Neuroptix Corporation, told Ivanhoe. Unfortunately, gaining access to brain tissue is not easy in a living person so most of the diagnosis of definitive Alzheimers is postmortem.
To test their device, researches filled test tubes with saline and tiny plastic beads to represent BA proteins. They then administered eye drops of a compound designed to attach specifically to BA. When you excite the tagged proteins with an ultra violet laser, they glow a brilliant sapphire blue, Sherr explained.
We hope that one day this platform technology will offer clinicians and their patients improved diagnostics, detection and treatment of Alzheimers disease at an earlier stage before the condition progresses, Sherr said. Neuroptix Corporation plans to start clinical trials this year on the device and the eye drop solution.
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SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Evan Sherr and The 28th Annual Conference of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS), Kissimmee, Fla., April 2 - 6, 2008
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
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