San Francisco. Diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease is complicated and expensive. Dementia experts are hopeful that will soon change.
In the fight against Alzheimer Scientists have taken the next big step. In the future, a simple blood test could be enough to detect a disease at an early stage. In Alzheimer is the most common and extreme form of insanity.
According to Study in Swedenreleased on Sunday and presented at a conference in the US, showed a combined blood test In patients with memory disorders, they correctly determined whether Alzheimer’s disease was present in 90 percent of cases. Dementia specialists who examined patients using standard procedures achieved only a 73 percent accuracy rate, while general practitioners who used these methods were only correct in 61 percent of cases.
Alzheimer’s test targets biomarkers
Doctors made their diagnoses based on cognitive tests and CT scans. Expensive and complex PETs (Positron emission tomography), a nuclear medicine procedure that makes the body’s metabolic processes visible, was not used.
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The blood test used used two different biomarkers. On the one hand, it focuses on a form of the tau protein that, when developed, causes changes in the brain of a person suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Measuring this biomarker, called pTau-217proved to be the most promising. At the same time, the blood test also examined the biomarker Amyloid. Amyloid causes plaques in the brain.
Experts in Alzheimer’s study: “A revolution”
Brain Doctor Prof. Dr. Kathrin ReetzPresident of the German Brain Foundation and Senior Physician for Neurology at the RWTH Aachen University Hospital, had already expressed confidence in April that corresponding tests would soon find their way into everyday clinical practice. The tests are as reliable as a lumbar puncture or a PET scan, she told our editorial team.
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Other experts who were not directly involved in the study are equally confident. “Not long ago, it was considered impossible to measure pathology in the brain of a living human being,” said Dr. Jason Karlawish, co-director of the Penn Memorial Center at the University of Pennsylvania, according to the New York Times. The study would… revolution “which allows us to measure what is happening in the brains of living people.”
Alzheimer’s: Who would be suitable for a blood test?
The experts and authors of the study stressed that, according to ethical principles, such Blood test The fragrances can only be applied to people who already complain of symptoms such as memory loss or cognitive impairment, as these could also be treated with medication. “If you were to identify Alzheimer’s pathology in a person without cognitive impairment, there would be no therapies that could be offered,” explained Dr. Oskar Hansson, professor of clinical memory research at Lund University in Sweden and a co-author of the study.
Alzheimer’s disease can often be detected pathologically long before symptoms even appear. There can be 20 years between them. A positive test result could increase the “risk of anxiety and other psychological reactions,” Hansson says. This recommendation would change if drugs were found that prevented the pathological development of a disease. Alzheimer’s disease could slow down or even stop.
Blood test in the pre-dementia phase with high accuracy rate
Additionally, the study authors noted that if the blood test is positive, a PET scan or Lumbar function should be performed to confirm the result. These would still represent the gold standard in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
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The study involved 1,200 people with mild memory problems been investigated. The accuracy of the blood test was highest in patients who already had dementia and slightly lowest in patients in the pre-dementia stage, known as mild cognitive impairment. In the early stage, called subjective cognitive impairment, when patients first become aware of their memory failure, it was not very accurate. Hansson attributes this to the fact that many people with subjective cognitive impairment simply do not develop Alzheimer’s disease.
Forms of dementia
| Alzheimer’s disease | Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and mainly affects older people. It occurs gradually and affects memory, thinking and behavior. |
| Vascular dementia | Vascular dementia is caused by damage to the blood vessels in the brain, for example through stroke or circulatory disorders. Symptoms can vary depending on the area of the brain affected. |
| Lewy body dementia | In Lewy body dementia, so-called Lewy bodies build up in the brain, leading to disruptions in information processing. Symptoms are often similar to those of Parkinson’s disease. |
| Frontotemporal dementia | Frontotemporal dementia primarily affects the areas of the brain responsible for behavior, personality, and language. Symptoms can vary greatly depending on the area affected. |
| Mixed dementia | Mixed dementia involves multiple forms of dementia occurring at the same time, such as Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. |