A. Diagnosing Alzheimer's
Disease Early
Narrator: This is Science Today. Researchers
are one step closer to accurately diagnosing Alzheimer's
Disease at an earlier stage. In a recent study led
by Michael Weiner of the University of California,
San Francisco, 90 percent of patients suspected
of having the disease were correctly diagnosed using
an MRI scan and magnetic resonance spectroscopy,
or MRS.
Weiner: MRS is done with the same machine
as an MRI is done, but instead of giving a picture
of brain structure, it allows us to measure the
chemicals in the brain and there's a specific chemical
called n-acetyl aspartate, or NAA, an amino acid
which is only in the nerve cells.
Narrator: When nerve cells die, NAA decreases
and cause a loss of brain function.
Weiner: It would be very nice to have scientific
measures which tell you about the nerve cells in
the brain and whether they are dying off or not.
And we think that MRS offers the best chance for
that. but we're not there yet, but I'm hopeful.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
B. Tired Of Sleeping Problems?
Narrator: This is Science Today. Some of
you may have already noticed that the older you
get, the harder it is to sleep properly. David Claman,
director of a University of California, San Francisco
sleep clinic, says there are several reasons why.
Claman: Part of it has to do with that people,
when they're older, have more medical problems and
either the medical problems or the treatments with
medicines for the medical problems can all affect
sleeping in different ways - breathing problems,
painful conditions, anything that makes a patient
have to urinate more often, all those can disturb
sleeping.
Narrator: And while caffeine, alcohol and
too much napping often disrupt sleep, Claman believes
the most common problem is purposeful sleep deprivation.
Claman: People think they have too many
other things to do and they can't afford to sleep
as long as they really need to and what I stress
to people is to take sleep seriously as an important
factor in their lives that will help them live a
better life and feel better during the daytime.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
C. Helping Doctors See The Light
Narrator: This is Science Today. Endoscopy
is a surgical procedure in which a long instrument
with a lighted tip is inserted into organs such
as the abdomen and intestines. While this alleviates
cutting a person open, physicist Lee Haddad of the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory says the
problem with endoscopes is there's too much glare
on wet surfaces.
Haddad: In an open procedure, you sort of
open up the area and then you have access from all
directions and you can adjust lighting and the position
of the surgeon's head and his angle of visualization
and everything. There's a lot of freedom there.
With an endoscopic procedure, there's a lot of constraint
on how you illuminate the subject and how you can
visualize the subject.
Narrator: Haddad and his colleagues are
using advanced digital and optical technology to
reduce endoscopic glare.
Haddad: I think anybody that has to go have
a surgery will be real happy if there's a good way
to do it. Anything we can do to improve that or
make it easier for the surgeon to do his or her
job, that just helps.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
D. Gene Therapy: The Pros And
Cons
Narrator: This is Science Today. Michael
German, a professor of medicine at the University
of California, San Francisco, says over the years
gene therapy has gotten a bad reputation.
German: Part of the reason for that is the
targets for gene therapy in the past have been very
difficult targets. People have tried to treat diseases
that are very difficult to treat, often previously
untreatable diseases have been attempted. If you
can possibly come up with a treatment for an incurable
disease, that's great. But it's sort of a Hail Mary
approach.
Narrator: Instead, German and his colleagues
are targeting diabetes - a treatable disease - by
genetically engineering certain cells in the digestive
system to secrete insulin into the bloodstream.
Such an approach would bring an end to daily insulin
injections.
German: What we think we're doing with the
approach that we're using is, we are treating diseases
that presently do have a treatment, like diabetes.
But the treatment is not optimal and we think we
can make a significant improvement and improve the
lives of those patients. That's our goal.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
E. Keeping A Better Eye On Heart
Patients
Narrator: This is Science Today. Continuous
monitoring of a heart attack patient with a 12 view
electrocardiogram, or EKG, improves the patient's
outcome more than an EKG with only a few views of
the heart. Barbara Drew, a professor at the University
of California, San Francisco says hospitals don't
routinely use the 12 view EKG because it's impractical.
Drew: The problem is that it interferes
with emergency measures, it gets into the way of
other tests that are done and whenever a patient
brushes their teeth or moves their extremities,
there's a lot of interference with what you're wanting
to monitor.
Narrator: Drew helped develop a converter,
which attaches to the one view EKG, and mathematically
derives a way to generate 12 views of the heart,
without all the wires and electrodes.
Drew: When we've compared that to the routine
way of monitoring a patient with just one lead or
just two leads, we have seen that the old method
only detects about 33% of the events that are detected
with this new improved method.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
