A new brain scan which could be used to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease has been hailed by experts, just before World Alzheimer’s Day is celebrated tomorrow.

There are currently no fail-safe methods to test for the illness which affects more than 25 million people around the world, including over 4,500 people in Malta. But researchers in Japan have developed a scan which could eventually help doctors accurately diagnose the disease.

The technology allows them to detect a protein called tau which builds up in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.

Eric Karran, director of research at Alzheimer’sResearch UK, said: “This promising early study highlights a potential new method for detecting tau – a key player in both Alzheimer’s and frontotemporal dementia – in the living brain.

There are currently no fail-safe methods to test for the illness

“With new drugs in development designed to target tau, scans capable of visualising the protein inside the brain could be important for assessing whether treatments in clinical trials are hitting their target.

“If this method is shown to be effective, such a scan could also be a useful aid for providing people with an accurate diagnosis, as well as for monitoring disease progression.

“The different forms of dementia can be extremely difficult to diagnose accurately using currently available methods.”

Until now, it has only been possible to confirm a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s by looking at the brain after a person’s death, according to Alzheimer’s Research UK.