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Scientists have developed a blood test capable of detecting Alzheimer's proteins that accumulate in the brain until 20 years before the onset of disease symptoms, reveals a new study.
The test, created by researchers at the Washington University of St. Louis, has a 94% accuracy for predicting devastating brain disease, they report.
Alzheimer's disease is incurable and the only treatment approved so far only slows the progression of the disease if it is administered early.
Thus, a blood test that can diagnose the disease tens of years before the start of memory loss could allow people to enjoy a quality life as they would have lost it.
A new study suggests that a new blood test for Alzheimer's disease can detect the disease with an accuracy of 94%, up to 20 years before the onset of symptoms.
On average, people with Alzheimer's live only four to eight years after diagnosis.
Meanwhile, the decline can be a slow, steady walk that can or can occur suddenly – a dramatic drop in confusion, dependency, isolation, and fear.
Regardless of the number of years lived by a person with Alzheimer's disease, the disease is divided into seven stages, ranging from a clinical deficiency to a very severe cognitive decline.
People are usually diagnosed during the third stage of the disease, which is characterized by a slight cognitive decline that becomes apparent to people who have known the person for a long time, such as family members and primary care physicians.
If the disease is detected at its stages of mild to moderate intensity, there are a handful of drugs that can help slow progressive memory loss and reduce behavioral changes such as agitation.
But past these first steps, there is not much to do for the mind.
Instead, medications for the treatment of moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease usually facilitate the care of patients, thereby preserving the most basic basic functions – such as the use of the room bath – but often for a few months only.
This year alone, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is expected to spend $ 2.3 billion on research on all types of Alzheimer's. Much of this budget will go to random studies in search of a cure.
But until one is found, early diagnosis is the only hope to give tens of millions of people with Alzheimer's disease a better quality of life even longer.
At the present time, most people are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease with the help of a subjective test.
PET scans for amyloid plaques and taps for badyzing blood plasma from spinal fluid provide better measurements, but are astronomically expensive and, in the case of taps, very painful.
In addition, at least a dozen Alzheimer's disease drug trials have failed, and "this may not be because the drugs do not work, paradoxically," he said. Dr. Suzanne Schindler, co-author of the new study, at DailyMail.com.
"We think that amyloid is what is initiated and necessary to cause Alzheimer's disease, but it's not enough [on its own].
"If we can target its accumulation early, we may be able to prevent the disease, but Bprog has been used for most clinical trials that started giving the drug at an advanced stage of the disease, when you already have a lot damage and other processes in progress. which are quite impossible to reach.
The blood test that Dr. Schindler and her team are developing would be much less expensive and, according to their latest tests performed on 158 people over the age of 50 on a cognitive level, could detect Alzheimer's disease much earlier.
According to the study published in the journal Neurology, the blood test alone was the PET of the plates placed in the brain of the same person 88 times out of 100.
Once the researchers took into account genetic test results for Alzheimer's risk, this accuracy reached 94%.
There were some false positives in these initial comparisons of DNA-scan testing – but what first appeared to be flaws in the tests proved later on the proof of their unprecedented accuracy.
Four years later, on average, after examining the brain of these subjects, these formerly false-positive subjects also exhibited positive signs of Alzheimer's disease.
Scientists predict that their tests could predict Alzheimer's disease for up to 20 years.
Dr. Schindler hopes that providing a less expensive test for the early detection of Alzheimer's plaques "will speed up the process and allow us to find an effective drug faster."
And this will also translate into the effectiveness of these drugs for patients.
"The interest of the test is to identify people very early during the course of the disease (…) and to completely eliminate amyloid." These people would theoretically not develop dementia, "says Dr. Schindler.
& # 39; Of course, this needs to be proven, but we think it could work.
"But to do that, you must have a good test."
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