The Food and Drug Administration approved a radioactive imaging chemical from General Electric to help screen patients for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The drug, Vizamyl, is an injection of radioactive material designed to highlight abnormal brain plaque in medical imaging scans.
Vizamyl works by binding to the plaque and creating images that show up on PET scans of the brain. A negative scan means there is little plaque and the cause of dementia is probably not Alzheimer’s, according to an FDA release. A positive scan means the patient has at least some plaque, but does not mean they definitely have Alzheimer’s.
The injection is intended as one tool to help physicians identify the cause of patient’s cognitive decline.
Read the full Associated Press article here.