MRI scan could detect autism

Researchers at McLean Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts say they have taken a major step forward in diagnosing autism with MRI scans.

The test is said to be 95 per cent accurate and uses the scanners to show how well different parts of the brain are interacting.

Additionally, the scans are much cheaper than current conventional diagnoses, costing around £100 per patient as opposed to £2,000.

Professor Nicholas Lange of Harvard Medical School said he is hopeful that the development will help to improve the lives of people with autism.

"In the future parents could take children into hospital and they could have the scan," the Daily Mail reports him as saying.

"It would take ten minutes after which measurements could be carried out to give a diagnosis of autism."

Recently, research published in the Journal of the Medical Association revealed that children with autism are more likely to have impaired mitochondrial function and DNA abnormalities.

Find out about Barchester's support for adults and children with a wide range of Autistic spectrum conditions.