Blood Tests Will Change the Diagnosis and Treatment of Dementia
Blood tests may now diagnose Alzheimer's disease: a Japanese beta-amyloid assay showed 88% accuracy, while a British test uses neurofilament markers.
Blood tests may now diagnose Alzheimer's disease: a Japanese beta-amyloid assay showed 88% accuracy, while a British test uses neurofilament markers.
According to official statistics, around 50 million people worldwide suffer from dementia, including its most common form — Alzheimer's disease. Physicians often diagnose the condition only at advanced stages. However, this may soon change thanks to blood tests.
The National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology in Obu has recently presented an experimental test that allows physicians to measure the blood concentration of an abnormal version of the beta-amyloid protein. This protein forms toxic deposits in the brain — a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. The test was evaluated in more than 200 patients with various types of dementia and in a group of healthy individuals. The assay detected the disease in affected patients with 92% accuracy and identified healthy individuals with 85% accuracy. Overall test accuracy reached 88%.
King's College London, in turn, proposes diagnosing dementia by detecting neurofilaments (elements of the "skeleton" of nerve cells) in the blood. The presence of these elements indicates damage to neurons. Researchers measured neurofilament levels in 2,300 people with various neurodegenerative diseases, as well as in healthy individuals. Patients had substantially higher neurofilament levels than healthy people.
The Washington University School of Medicine has also contributed. Like the Japanese test, the American assay detects the concentration of the abnormal form of beta-amyloid protein in the blood. About 500 people participated in trials of this test. In terms of accuracy, the test was fully comparable to brain scanning.
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