‘Most powerful’ scanner for diseases like Alzheimer’s arrives in Spain

Magnetom Cima.X, the most powerful scanner to push the boundaries of Alzheimer’s research, arrives in SpainEFE

He Research Center for Neurological Diseases (CIEN) has a new MRI scanner which doubles the power of existing ones, achieving a resolution that will allow us to detect changes in the brain tissue of people with pathologies such as Alzheimer’s disease This has not been possible until now.

“We hope and believe that with the help of MRI we will be able to identify changes in brain tissue that this was impossible before“, said Michel Grote, head of the neuroimaging department at CIEN, during the presentation. Magnet Cima.X, of which Spain acquired the first unit in all of Europe.

What you do matters

This is the first specialized 3 Tesla MRI machine in the world. for research purposes only and that thanks to his strength and other instruments and artificial intelligence algorithmsThey achieve much clearer images, full of detail and free of noise that elements such as blood flow can introduce.

All this will contribute to the discovery of the microstructural and functional characteristics of neurons in order to subsequently associate them with various pathologies.

Although its use is currently limited to clinical studies, Grote has no doubt that “in the short to medium term” get to hospitalswhat this will mean for the diagnosis of this type of disease.

First in Europe

The Queen Sofia Foundation purchased the machine, developed by Siemens, which costs around 3 million eurosthanks to “the generosity of so much cooperation”, his secretary José Luis Nogueira thanked him.

Neuroimaging experts tested it for a month and finalized the details to begin using it in several research projects; one of them will be the continuation of the VARS initiative aimed at obtain interdisciplinary data (psychological, medical, functional, neuroimaging, biochemical, genetic, neuropathological) at moderate and late stages of Alzheimer’s disease in hospitalized patients.

The project includes a brain donation program to find treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.Parkinson’s disease, ALS or multiple sclerosisamong other things.

The CIEN Foundation scientists have another advantage: they not only work with patients at the Reina Sofia Foundation’s Alzheimer’s Disease Care Centre, but they also work with blood samples. brain bank that it is there and has more than 800 organs intended for research.

In addition to the VARS project, the researchers are planning to launch two more projects in which they will be able to use this new tool. The first is SCAP-AD (Cognitive Screening and Personalized Approach to the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias). detect cases of Alzheimer’s disease in the early stages.

They are looking for candidates

In his opinion, the CIEN Foundation is in its full development stage. recruitment of volunteerswho must meet a number of requirements: be over 60 years old, not have been diagnosed with dementia and not suffer from claustrophobia. In just 3 hours, they will only have to undergo a digital test, have blood and samples taken, and an MRI.

Another project is aimed at frontotemporal dementiathe third most common cause of neurodegenerative dementia in our community after Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia, but second in people under 65 years of age.

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