How do you know if a person is at high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease? But also identify whether a patient with dementia is indeed suffering from this neurodegenerative disease? Here are the objectives displayed by the team from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who developed a blood test to detect the first signs of the disease.
Thus, to demonstrate the effectiveness of their method, they used blood samples from patients enrolled in other studies in the United States, Australia and Sweden.
Efficiency estimated at 93%
The results confirmed that the test consisting in analyzing the presence of amyloid plaques provided sufficient accuracy in patients with symptoms, but also in those without. Its efficiency even reaches 93%.
An excellent alternative to current methods of using PET scanning or analyzing levels of amyloid plaques and Tau proteins in cerebrospinal fluid. The blood test reducing the cost of diagnosis by at least 10 times.
“These results would allow patients identified but not yet showing symptoms to be included in clinical trials that bring hope, rejoice its creators. A negative test would also rule out Alzheimer’s disease for some patients already showing symptoms of dementia,” they conclude.
