Researchers have provided the first look into how Alzheimer's disease progresses in living patients, according to a study in the Feb. 1 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

The three-dimensional video maps show the sequential destruction of brain areas that control memory function, then emotion and inhibition and finally sensation. The disease spares small brain regions that control vision and other functions that remain intact in Alzheimer's patients.

Study author Paul Thompson, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), said researchers were stunned to see a spreading wave of tissue loss that "moved across the brain like a wild fire."

Thompson said this type of imaging would allow doctors and researchers to pinpoint where and how fast the disease is spreading. "We will urgently apply this method to reveal how drugs and vaccines combat the wave of brain damage caused by Alzheimer's disease," he said.

In order to track the cell death caused by Alzheimer's, researchers scanned 12 Alzheimer's patients and 14 healthy elderly volunteers with MRI brain scans every three months for two years.

Alzheimer's patients lost an average of 5.3 percent of their gray matter per year. Brain cells were purged even faster in some brain regions, with patients losing up to 10 percent in memory regions each year. After two years, the disease had engulfed virtually the entire brain Healthy elderly volunteers lost only 0.9 percent of their brain tissue annually.

Other sources: University of California-Los Angeles