Imaging of Brain Amyloid Plaques in the Aging Population

Description

Identification of risk factors and biomarkers of neurodegenerative disease is essential in caring for the growing numbers of elderly. Imaging biomarkers provide non-invasive ways to look at brain function. A new PET imaging agent, Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB), that identifies brain amyloid is an exciting development in brain imaging that needs to be studied. We plan to study this imaging technique in normal volunteers and patients with a variety of neurodegenerative diseases to determine its utility. Long term followup of these subjects will allow us to understand the predictive ability of this new test.