Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease causing progressive cognitive decline until eventual death. AD affects millions of individuals worldwide in the absence of effective treatment options, and its clinical causes are still uncertain. The onset of dementia symptoms indicates severe neurodegeneration has already taken place. Therefore, AD diagnosis at an early stage is essential as it results in more effective therapy to slow its progression. The current clinical diagnosis of AD relies on mental examinations and brain imaging to determine whether patients meet diagnostic criteria, and biomedical research focuses on finding associated biomarkers by using neuroimaging techniques. Multiple clinical brain imaging modalities emerged as potential techniques to study AD, showing a range of capacity in their preciseness to identify the disease. This review presents the advantages and limitations of brain imaging modalities for AD diagnosis and discusses their clinical value.
Osteoporosis is a disease that often occurs in postmenopausal women. The purpose of this study was to examine the positive effects of Cheongukjang powder containing menaquinone-7 (MK-7) on bone health circulation in postmenopausal women. Fifty-six postmenopausal women were recruited into a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial. The participants were randomly assigned into two groups. For 12 weeks, one group received 800 μg MK-7 in the form of Cheongukjang packs (CMK-7), and the other group received the same amount of identical-looking placebo packs containing barley meal for 12 weeks. Femoral bone mineral density (BMD), bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (ALP), deoxypyridinoline (DPD), osteocalcin (OSC), serum Ca, and serum P were measured at baseline (0 weeks) and 12 weeks. After 12 weeks in the CMK-7 group, it was found that BMD, serum Ca, and serum P had increased above the baseline (p<0.0001, p=0.0028, p<0.0001), whereas bone-specific ALP, DPD, and OSC had decreased below the baseline (p=0.0003, p<0.0001, p<0.0001). Therefore, MK-7 taken as Cheongukjang is expected to prevent osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.
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