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Researchers at the University of Washington in St. Louis has developed a blood test to identify Alzheimer's disease with an accuracy of 94%, just before the onset of the first symptoms, taking into account the age of the patient and genetic factors, reports the Press Association.
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Researchers at the University of Washington in St. Louis has developed a blood test to identify Alzheimer's disease with an accuracy of 94%, just before the onset of the first symptoms, taking into account the age of the patient and genetic factors, reports the Press Association.
According to the researchers, the test measures the level of accumulation of beta-amyloid protein in the blood and, from these levels, it can predict whether there is a risk of accumulation of this protein in the brain, in the form of senile plaques. The study at the University of Washington states that a patient with this form of dementia can be identified up to 20 years before the onset of symptoms.
The results were published in the medical journal Neurology and represent a major advance in the fight against this disease.
The study was conducted on 158 adults aged at least 50 years old. Of these, 148 had normal cognitive functions. A blood sample was taken from each participant and then subjected to an imaging procedure, a positron emission tomography (PET) scan.
The researchers divided the blood samples and PET results into two categories, based on the presence or absence of beta amyloid, and found that the blood test result coincided with the PET scan 88% of the time. .
Then, to improve the accuracy of the test, the researchers also incorporated a number of major risk factors for Alzheimer's disease. Of these, age is the most known risk factor. After age 65, the risk of Alzheimer's disease doubles every 5 years.
A genetic mutation called APOE4 also increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease by 3 to 5 times. Sex is also important in this disease, since two patients with Alzheimer's disease are women.
After introducing these risk factors into the analysis, the accuracy of the test was raised to 94%.
The researchers hope that this blood test will be available in a few years. Its effectiveness will be considerably increased in the fight against this disease, after the appearance of new treatments that will stop the evolution of the disease and the installation of dementia.
Neurologists increasingly agree that to achieve the best results, the treatment of Alzheimer's disease should begin as soon as possible, ideally before the onset of the first symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. cognitive alienation. Usually, when sick people begin to manifest the main symptom of the disease, memory loss, the brain is already deeply affected and treatments can only slightly relieve symptoms. ziare.com
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