[Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease by neuroimaging methods]

Visual examinations of the brain, MRI in particular, are very important but always only auxiliary methods in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Since several years the results obtained in them could have been confirmed objectively by introduction of various methods for measurement of cerebral structures undergoing atrophy. The development of functional MRI programmes, particularly those of regional blood flow in capillaries, has helped in detection of early Alzheimer lesions. The main difficulty in these diagnostic methods is the continuum of lesions resulting from physiological senescence and those being pathological atrophy of Alzheimer type.