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A Blood Test Accurately Diagnosed Alzheimer's 90% of the Time, Study Finds
Scientists have developed a blood test that accurately identifies Alzheimer's disease in patients with memory issues 90% of the time (source may be paywalled; alternative source), significantly outperforming standard diagnostic methods. The findings have been published in the journal JAMA. The New Y...
The New York Times reports: The new study used a blood test that focuses on a form of a protein called tau that sprouts into tangles in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. Dr. Sebastian Palmqvist, an associate professor of neurology at Lund University who led the study with [Dr. Oskar Hansson, a professor of clinical memory research at Lund University in Sweden and the senior author of the study], said that first, about 300 patients in each group were given the blood test, and results were compared with spinal taps or PET scans. It was not very accurate with the earliest stage, called subjective cognitive decline, when patients begin to perceive their memory to be failing.
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