Narrator: This is Science Today. A non-invasive MRI technique that's called arterial spin labeling has been found to be as accurate as invasive scanning techniques in distinguishing between Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. Norbert Schuff, who led the University of California , San Francisco study, says arterial spin labeling is a technique that basically measures the supply of blood flow in the brain.

Schuff: The beauty of this new technique is that it is entirely based on MRI techniques. So, you can easily attach it to the conventional MRI scan and in addition to that, we can measure the blood flow without any trace or injecting anything. Usually blood flow is measured by injecting some radioactive material or a dye.

Narrator: This technique's ability to distinguish between Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia is an important finding.

Schuff: At the early stage, those dementias are very difficult to separate. So, it will be very important to differentiate them at an early stage because they have different courses.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.