By Annette Pinder
As we continue to make enormous strides in medicine, one interesting development is a highly accurate blood test for Alzheimer’s disease that may soon be available. New research supported by both the Alzheimer’s Association and American Medical Association, indicates that a new blood test can help increase the accuracy and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
The blood tests showed promise for detecting Alzheimer’s-related changes in the brain associated with a specific Alzheimer’s biomarker protein increase, even before patients show any signs or symptoms of the disease, such as reduced cognition. Increases in this biomarker are associated with worsening cognition and brain atrophy. The test can also predict the likelihood of finding amyloid plaques in the brain, which are another hallmark sign of Alzheimer’s and a target for recently approved treatments.
The large study, which consisted of 1,213 patients, showed that the blood test was more accurate in detecting Alzheimer’s than using the traditional diagnostic methods of both primary care doctors and specialists. Of the 698 patients seen at memory clinics, the blood test was 90% accurate for identifying Alzheimer’s while the specialists’ accuracy was only 73%. Among the 515 patients seen in primary care, accuracy for the blood test was at 90% while the accuracy of primary care physicians’ using traditional methods was 63%.
Soeren Mattke, M.D., D.Sc, the lead author of the Alzheimer’s blood test study and director of the Brain Health Observatory at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, said that the blood test could make a huge difference in being able to identify patients with markers for Alzheimer’s disease. Once identified, patients currently waiting to receive a diagnosis would be able to participate in clinical trials and new treatments.
