Study: Device to Stop Deterioration of Brain During Alzheimer's Undergoing National Test

An experimental device designed to better circulate the fluid that bathes the brain in Alzheimer's patients is being tested at hospitals around the nation.

Known as COGNIShunt, the device draws between 1.4 ounces to 4.7 ounces of fluid a day from the brain to the abdomen on the premise that the circulation of this fluid slows as people age, allowing toxic proteins linked to Alzheimer's to accumulate in the brain.

Researcher Dr. Geoffrey Eubank, a neurologist at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, OH, told the Columbus Dispatch that the shunt theoretically reduces the harmful buildup by restoring the normal clearance process of the fluid that people had at an earlier age.

An earlier study of 15 patients who had the shunt produced evidence that it can stop deterioration of the brain. Now, researchers are hoping to see similar outcomes in a group of 280 patients at 25 hospitals around the country.

Dr. David Beversdorf, a neurologist and an Ohio State University expert on the disease, said the success of the shunt would have to be significant to overcome the risk of infection and potential bleeding of the brain that could occur because of the surgery to insert the device.

Thus far, officials of Eunoe, the California company that makes the device, say those potential side effects have yet to be a problem.

Other sources: Columbus Dispatch (October 12, 2003)