Treatment with bapineuzumab for 78 weeks reduced cortical 11C-PiB retention compared with both baseline and placebo. 11C-PiB PET seems to be useful in assessing the effects of potential Alzheimer's disease treatments on cortical fibrillar amyloid-β load in vivo.

Structural changes can be seen on MRI scans that predate the clinical onset of familial Alzheimer's disease. Longitudinal measures of atrophy rates can identify differences between mutation carriers and controls 2–3 years earlier than cross-sectional volumetric measures.

Who is the third who walks always beside you?When I count, there are only you and I togetherBut when I look ahead up the white roadThere is always another one walking beside youGliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hoodedI do not know whether a man or a woman—But who is that on the other side of you?TS Eliot, The Wasteland, 1922

Visual art is in essence a creative activity concerned with the generation of new designs and ideas. Acts of creation such as paintings capture our imagination, not simply because we are able to explore their nature, but also because they reflect the nature of their creator. It is this relation that makes the examination of artistic and creative talent in the context of illness so revealing.William Utermohlen is a 66-year-old artist, born in south Philadelphia, who came to England in 1957. He has no family history of neurological or psychiatric illness and his medical history before presentation was unremarkable, except for a car accident at the age of 55 years which left him unconscious for about 30 min.

This technique may be useful for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, the assessment of disease progression, and the evaluation of potential treatments.