健康英语新闻:Israeli firm develops scanning system to tackle into brain diseases

JERUSALEM, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli company has developed a system that scans the brain and provides a three dimensional image of the nerve cell connectivity to treat brain diseases like Alzheimer's or HDHD.

The firm ElMindA trademarked a non-invasive system, the BNA ( Brain Network Activation), that helps doctors visualize the connectivity between nerve cells and synchronization that can even measure the severity of the patients condition from one day to another, the Israel21c news site reported on Thursday

By creating a three-dimensional image of the brain while asking the patients to repeat an activity several times, BNA developers hope this system will become a regular way of diagnosing brain illnesses.

"Our vision is that every psychiatrist and neurologist in the world will routinely send every patient for BNA tests," said Dr. Eli Zangvil, ElMindA's strategic advisor for business development. "Our test would add information and aid in diagnostics in a way no other existing technology can do," he added.

BNA could help doctors find out exactly at what stage of the disease patients and prescribe the exact medication for them.

"To do that, we must collect a lot of data," Zangvil said. "To say this person has a certain disease or condition, I have to be able to compare their pattern to a normal brain pattern of a person of the same age and gender." he said.

Researchers hope to gather the amount of data they need to obtain FDA approval in the U.S. by the end of 2012, and start marketing it to hospitals by 2013.