Progress with Blood Tests for Alzheimer’s

  

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Scientists are getting closer and closer to a critical milestone in diagnosing Alzheimer’s patients. They are extremely close to succeeding at creating a blood test to screen people for the disease.

Currently, Alzheimer’s is diagnosed only after people start having memory problems or unexpected change in behavior. They then undergo an in-depth medical interview, a memory assessment test and occasionally an MRI to look for brain shrinkage. The problem is that these processes are overly expensive and impractical for routine use.

That’s why two recent studies are being hailed around the medical world as a large step forward in Alzheimer’s research. Australian researchers reported a few weeks ago that their blood tests showed more accuracy than ever seen before when tested with over 1000 patients. “The test correctly identified 83 percent of people with high amyloid levels and correctly ruled out 85 percent of people without this condition”[1].

The other study used blood tests to screen for autoantibodies (special markers in blood) and showed even better experimental results. “The blood test correctly detected Alzheimer's disease in people already diagnosed with the devastating brain disorder with 96 percent accuracy, according to the researchers. The test could also distinguish who didn't have the disease from a control group of non-affected adults with 92.5 percent accuracy”[2]. 

This research is a huge step forward but the scientists cautioned spectators saying that there is still a long way to go. Let’s hope that future studies like these continue to show as exciting and ground-breaking results.