Wash U Researchers Find Blood Test Can Detect Early Alzheimer's Symptoms

[Sherman A1]

For years, doctors have used an expensive brain scan to detect symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

But researchers at Washington University have found that a simple blood test could be similarly effective, according to a study published this month in the journal Neurology. A blood test to diagnose early symptoms could help make finding a cure easy or cheaper and even guide treatment for the disease in the future, the study’s authors say.

“For a long time, a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease was referred to among the Alzheimer’s researcher community as the holy grail,” said Suzanne Schindler, a Wash U neurologist and author of the study. “Really, until three years ago, a lot of people thought this was far in the future.”

Alzheimer’s patients develop tangles and plaques of amyloid protein in their brains. Scientists have not determined the plaques are what cause Alzheimer’s memory loss, but they do know those proteins are present in the brain decades before symptoms start.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/wash-u-researchers-find-blood-test-can-detect-early-alzheimers-symptoms

[3Hotdogs]

1. What % of dimentia is Alzheimer's? Will the blood test recognize other causes?

[Bayard]

2. I need this a lot sooner!

“I could imagine maybe 20 or 30 years from now that when you go to see your primary care doctor, they take your blood and send it to check … to see if you have diabetes or high cholesterol, they also send it for an amyloid test,” she said. “If it’s positive, they start you on a medication that would prevent you from ever getting Alzheimer’s disease.”

Spectrometers have been around forever, so I don't understand why it should take that long to do this simple blood test.

My mom had Alzheimer's. My forgetfulness is starting to worry me. I forgot and left a pot on the stove last night, and when I came back in, the house was full of smoke. She used to do the same thing.