The World Health Organization (WHO) proclaimed September 21 World Alzheimer’s Day in 1994 under the auspices of Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI).
The Sant Pau Biomedical Research Institute (IIB Sant Pau) is one of the most prominent European centers in the diagnosis, treatment and research of this disease and a pioneer in the introduction of early diagnosis through the analysis of patients’ cerebrospinal fluid .
At the moment, the Sant Pau professionals are studying the possibility of obtaining good results in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s through the proteins found in the blood, facilitating, even more, early diagnosis.
The Group of Neurological Diseases, Neuroscience and Mental Health of the Sant Pau Research Institute is a benchmark in the study of neurological, mental disorders and neurological development. There are several active lines of research working on different disorders such as stroke, neuromuscular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, schizophrenia, depression or chronic pain.
Some groups work on the genetic basis of neurological diseases, biomarker identification, neuroimaging, neurosurgical methods, deep brain stimulation or omics, while other groups work on pain models, synapse biology or neuropharmacology. In this area, large population cohorts of patients with clinical follow-up are analyzed and numerous clinical trials are carried out. The Hospital also has the only Alzheimer-Down Unit in the entire State, a fact that means opening new paths in the knowledge of the disease.
Dr. Albert Lleó, director of the Neurology Service at Hospital de Sant Pau, and head of the Neurobiology of Dementia Research Group at the Hospital’s Research Institute, explains the moment in which the diagnosis, treatment and Alzheimer’s research in the world.
