Royal Liverpool University Hospital (RLUH; United Kingdom) is helping to identify Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as early in its development as possible.

Patients from all across the North West of England are referred to the hospital with memory problems, where they can be tested using various nuclear medicine imaging methods. Since the installation of the Siemens Healthcare (Erlangen, Germany), Symbia TruePoint SPECT•CT system five years ago, the hospital has conducted over a thousand brain scans using a contrast agent that detects the presence of dopamine transporters in the brain, thus helping to differentiate dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) resulting from AD, and that derived from Parkinson’s disease (PD).

“An early, correct diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease gives the drugs known as Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors the best chance to have a positive effect. If we rule out this specific disease then we can stop patients having to take medication that will have no useful effect,” said Prof. Sobhan Vinjamuri, lead consultant of nuclear medicine at RLUH. “Even without drug therapy, early diagnosis importantly allows both patients and their families time to understand the progression of the disease and enables them to plan and access support services early in order to maintain healthy independent living for as long as possible.”

“Royal Liverpool Hospital is taking the war against dementia very seriously. Patients that are being diagnosed early are able to benefit from the most appropriate support,” said Gillian Wardropova, regional sales manager at Siemens Healthcare. “The Symbia SPECT•CT offers excellent and consistent image quality to ensure a clear and confident diagnosis, helping to identify symptoms of dementia as early as possible.”

The RLUH is a major teaching and research hospital that belongs to and operates on behalf of the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust and is associated with the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. The RLUH is the largest and busiest hospital in Merseyside and Cheshire, and has the largest emergency department of its kind in the United Kingdom. Following a landmark GBP 429 million redevelopment, the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital is also expected to be the largest hospital in the UK upon completion in 2017.

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