Scientists have achieved a significant milestone in the quest to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease with a simple blood test. On Sunday, a team of researchers reported that a new blood test is significantly more accurate than doctors’ interpretations of cognitive tests and CT scans in identifying the condition.
Published in the journal JAMA, the study revealed that the blood test correctly identified whether patients with memory problems had Alzheimer’s about 90 percent of the time. In comparison, dementia specialists using standard methods without expensive PET scans or invasive spinal taps were accurate 73 percent of the time, while primary care doctors achieved an accuracy of only 61 percent.
These findings, presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia, represent a crucial advancement in the search for affordable and accessible diagnostic tools for Alzheimer’s, a disease that affects over 32 million people worldwide.
Medical experts suggest that these results bring us closer to a future where routine blood tests for cognitive impairment could become part of primary care checkups, similar to cholesterol tests.
Several blood tests for Alzheimer’s have been developed in recent years, primarily used to screen clinical trial participants and by specialists to determine if a patient’s dementia is due to Alzheimer’s or another condition.
The new research, conducted in Sweden, must be confirmed in a diverse American population before being widely adopted in the United States, experts caution.
Experts also emphasize that blood tests should be just one step in a comprehensive screening process, used only for individuals with memory loss and cognitive decline symptoms—not for predicting Alzheimer’s in cognitively healthy people.
Testing recommendations may evolve if drugs are found that can delay or halt Alzheimer’s in those who have not yet developed cognitive issues.
Furthermore, blood tests should be performed after administering tests that assess memory and thinking abilities and CT scans to rule out other causes like strokes or brain tumors. Blood test results should be confirmed by PET scans or spinal taps to measure amyloid protein, which forms plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Source: Irish Times/adaderana.lk
