Is it Alzheimer's disease or another dementia? Marker may give more accurate diagnosis

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2011) — New research finds a marker used to detect plaque in the brain may help doctors make a more accurate diagnosis between two common types of dementia -- Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). The study is published in the November 30, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"These two types of dementia share similar symptoms, so telling the two apart while a person is living is a real challenge, but important so doctors can determine the best form of treatment," said study author Gil D. Rabinovici, MD, of the University of California San Francisco Memory and Aging Center and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

For the study, 107 people with early onset Alzheimer's disease or FTLD underwent a brain PET scan using a PIB marker, which detects amyloid or plaque in the brain that is the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease but not related to FTLD. The participants underwent another PET scan using a FDG marker, which detects changes in the brain's metabolism and is currently used to help differentiate between the two types of dementia.

The study found the PIB PET scan performed at least as well as the FDG PET scan in differentiating between Alzheimer's disease and FTLD, but had higher sensitivity and better accuracy and precision with its qualitative readings. The study found PIB had a sensitivity of 89.5 percent compared to 77.5 percent for FDG.

"While widespread use of PIB PET scans isn't available at this time, similar amyloid markers are being developed for clinical use, and these findings support a role for amyloid imaging in correctly diagnosing Alzheimer's disease versus FTLD," said Rabinovici.

The study was conducted at the University of California (UC) San Francisco, UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and supported by the National Institute on Aging, the California Department of Health Services, the Alzheimer's Association, John Douglas French Alzheimer's Foundation and the Consortium for Frontotemporal Dementia Research.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Academy of Neurology.

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More accurate tropical cyclone prediction model developed

ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2011) — Researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory Marine Meteorology Division (MMD), Monterey, Calif., have developed the Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System Tropical Cyclone (COAMPS-TC™) model, achieving a significant research milestone in predictions of tropical cyclone intensity and structure.

While the predictions of the paths or tracks of hurricanes, more generally referred to as tropical cyclones (TC), have steadily improved over the last few decades, improvements in the predictions of storm intensity have proven much more difficult.

"Over the past two years, the COAMPS-TC model has shown to be the most accurate emerging research model for predicting tropical cyclone intensity," said Dr. Jim Doyle, research meteorologist, NRL Monterey. "There is no better example of these difficult challenges than the intensity predictions for Hurricane Irene this past August."

Producing very accurate intensity predictions during a real-time experimental demonstration of Hurricane Irene, COAMPS-TC intensity errors were six knots on average for a series of three-day forecasts, a clear improvement over the official National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast and other operational models that ranged from 20-30 knots.

The successful predictions have demonstrated that Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models can outperform operational statistical-dynamic models that are based on climatology and previous behavior. It is further believed that NWP models, which explicitly predict the location, dynamics and intensity of a storm, will eventually provide the most promising approach to achieve accurate TC intensity and structure prediction.

Advancing further methodologies used for vortex initialization, data assimilation and representation of physical processes, COAMPS-TC is expected to become fully-operational in 2013 at the Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) in Monterey. Considerable advancements have been made to several components of the modeling system including the data assimilation of conventional and special TC synthetic observations, vortex initialization, and representation of key TC physical processes such as air-sea fluxes, clouds and convection.

The COAMPS-TC project will potentially signal a paradigm shift in TC forecasting and is already making a strong impression on the forecasting community. Focusing on the development and transition of a fully coupled air-ocean-wave prediction system, the COAMPS-TC model includes nonhydrostatic atmospheric dynamics, multiple nested moving grids that follow the center of the storm and improved boundary layer and cloud physical parameterizations.

COAMPS-TC was first tested in real-time in support of two field campaigns sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The Tropical Cyclone Structure-08 (TCS-08) conducted as part of The Observing System Research and Predictability Experiment (THORPEX) Pacific Asian Regional Campaign (T-PARC) in 2008 and the Impact of Typhoons on the Ocean in the Pacific (ITOP) in 2010, both of which took place in the Western Pacific. Additionally, COAMPS-TC advancements and real-time demonstrations in the Eastern Pacific and Western Atlantic have taken place through collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as part of the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project (HFIP) -- a community-wide effort focused on improving operational hurricane prediction.

In June 2011, COAMPS-TC was one of nine worldwide winners of the inaugural High Performance Computing (HPC) Excellence Award presented at the ISC-11 International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg, Germany -- an award presented annually to recognize noteworthy achievements by users of HPC technologies. As a result, COAMPS-TC was recognized for achieving 'a significantly improved model for tropical cyclone forecasting.' COAMPS-TC development benefited significantly from the Department of Defense HPC Modernization Program Office (HPCMO) computational assets at the Navy Defense Supercomputing Resource Center (DSRC) at Mississippi's Stennis Space Center.

Increasingly-sophisticated developmental versions of COAMPS-TC will continue to be demonstrated in real-time and in support of the Joint Typhoon Warning Center and the National Hurricane Center. A key additional enhancement will be a fully coupled ocean-atmosphere version in which the NRL Costal Ocean Model (NCOM) and the Wave Watch III (WWIII) will provide the ocean circulation and wave components, respectively.

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