Scanning for ‘covert’ strokes

Calgary neurologist’s study aims to prevent dementia

A leading neurologist is trying to determine what happens in the brain to cause dementia as people get older.

Dr. Eric Smith is conducting research using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to determine if a lack of blood flow in the brain puts people at greater risk for small, ‘covert’ strokes.

“Those covert strokes accumulate over time and increase the risk of major strokes and dementia,” says Smith, an assistant professor of clinical neurosciences at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine and a member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute.

“Our goal is to prevent dementia – a major public health problem and devastating for those afflicted and their families.”

Smith’s team is working with colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston to look closely at small blood vessels in the brain using MRI- and positron emission tomography (PET)-scanning technologies.

The Calgary team is recruiting 66 people in southern Alberta, while Harvard’s research team is enrolling 124 volunteers in Boston. The researchers here will ask study volunteers to do verbal and written memory and thinking tests, as well as an MRI of their brain.

“Ultimately, this research will help us identify the early warning signs of covert strokes and dementia, so that we can stop the process of brain damage before seeing disabling symptoms that profoundly change people’s lives – loss of memory, language and problem-solving,” says Smith, who was recruited to Alberta from Harvard in 2008.

There are 500,000 Canadians currently living with dementia – disorders of the brain in which thinking and memory progressively deteriorate.

Smith is one of 37 health researchers from across the province who were awarded $43 million in funding by Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions, formerly the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research.

These awards, 34 of which are seven years in length, are among the richest health research awards in Canada. Funding support at the University of Calgary is being awarded to researchers in the faculties of engineering, medicine, science and veterinary medicine.