Alzheimer's disease affects memory. New studies reveal that healthy people having no major signs of mental decline may already have Alzheimer's disease.

John Morris, director of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri is doing a study on this disease and his studies revealed that by the time clinical signs of Alzheimer's disease are shown; which is currently the only way this fatal illness is diagnosed - it may be too late.

Many teams are collectively working in designing an early detection mode of this dreadful disease.

An imaging agent called the Pittsburgh Compound B was developed by researchers. It lets scientists use PET scans to detect Amyloid plaques in living brains. This agent was tested over 159 people aged 51-88 between in year 2004 and 2008 who had no signs of cognitive impairment. But with time, nine were diagnosed with clinical Alzheimer's disease.

Study was again conducted on 135 normal people of age between 65-88 years. The study found the level of beta-Amyloid was linked to declines in memory.

Dr. Morris said, "Even if we knew you had preclinical Alzheimer's disease in your brain and ergo high risk of symptoms in a few years, we can't do anything about it now. We have to clarify, refine, and define our clinical detection of Alzheimer's disease -- but at the same time we have to develop treatments for prevention”.