The battle against Alzheimer's.

OPTIMA is a research programme for Alzheimer's disease financed by Bristol Myers Squibb, which has been going on for 10 years at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford under the direction of Dr. Kim Jobst. During that time Alzheimer's patients and a control group of normal people have undergone brain scans and contributed blood and spinal fluid samples in an effort to discover whether any factor emerged that could account for the rapid shrinkage of the brain that occurs in this disease. The programme follows several case histories. Patients are shown taking memory tests, co-ordination tests and undergoing brain scans which are explained and compared to normal brain scans. The taking of spinal fluid samples is also shown.