By 2030, more than 7.7 million Americans are expected to have some form of Alzheimer's, according to an article published by the Wall Street Journal. The market for diagnosing and treating Alzheimer's is expected to reach $10 billion in 2014, and it will only continue to expand as the number of patients increases.
Alzheimer's is challenging to diagnose in living patients, as doctors rely on memory tests to judge the mental health of a patient. After a patient has passed away, a sample of their brain tissue can be removed and checked for a sticky substance known as amyloid to tell conclusively if a patient had Alzheimer's or not.
Several large companies are backing research into a form of diagnostics that involves molecules with radioactive compounds. These compounds bind to the amyloid in the brain and help give doctors an indicator of the possibility of Alzheimer's in the living brain.
Along with early diagnosis comes better treatment. Many of the experimental treatments for Alzheimer's are much more effective in patients that are still in the early stages of the disease. As the disease progresses, it becomes easier to diagnose and much more difficult to treat effectively.
In trials, the diagnostic tests that use radioactive compounds proved effective in differentiating between six patients with and without Alzheimer's. Companies like GE and 
Alzheimer's strikes patients over the age of 65 hardest, and detecting the
