Autism Diagnosis Breakthroughs

Autism Diagnosis Breakthroughs

Dr. Travis Stork: Everyday there are doctors and scientists working to better understand complicated conditions like autism. We’ve got two breakthroughs that we want to share with you children’s hospital in Philadelphia is now using brain scans like this to diagnose autism. They found abnormalities in auditory and language processing can be detected and evaluated by something called MEG Magnetoencephalography.

Now for an MEG exam, a helmet that looks like an old fashion hair drier is actually lowered over the patients head. The helmet reads and then analysis electrical currents from the brain. Research suggest children with autism process sound a fraction of a second slower. Which may not sound like a lot but it is huge in researchers say now that signs of autism in the brain may become powerful markers that can help identify disorder as early as infancy whereas now we talked early about kids being rate to four of five years of age.

Dr. Jim Sears: Yeah, this will be able to diagnosed autism even before symptom show up which will be great and also you can differentiate between types of autism. So you can then guide the right kind of treatment.

Dr. Travis Stork: But everyone always wants to know is there a test worth, is there a blood test for autism. And there is not yet but multiple studies have identified the potential of a common genetic abnormality in some with autism spectrum disorder. The gene identified, it affects the ability of nerve cells to communicate with each other. The studies balls through the theory that abnormal interactions between neurons may be at the core of autism here’s what important more research is needed but with more people focused on it there is hope.


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