A new blood test can detect early Alzheimer’s disease with “unparalleled accuracy,” say scientists.
The test, developed in the USA, boasted a 100 per cent success rate in trials involving more than 200 people.
It uses the body’s immune response to determine whether a patient’s memory problems are caused by dementia. The lines between normal ageing, called mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and dementia are often blurred, with 60 per cent of those with MCI going on to develop the condition.
But this test looks for specific chemicals, or biomarkers, in the blood to predict dementia, something which could lead to patients being treated more quickly and effectively.
Cassandra DeMarshall, of Rowan University in New Jersey, was part of the team to make the discovery. She said: “To provide proper care, physicians need to know which cases are due to early Alzheimer’s and which are not.
“These findings could eventually lead to the development of a simple, inexpensive and relatively non-invasive way to diagnose this devastating disease in its earliest stages.”
Lead researcher Dr Robert Nagele said: “It is now generally believed Alzheimer’s-related changes begin in the brain at least a decade before the emergence of telltale symptoms.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first blood test using auto antibody biomarkers that can accurately detect Alzheimer’s at an early point in the course of the disease, when treatments are more likely to be beneficial – that is, before too much brain devastation has occurred.”
The results were published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis Assessment & Disease Monitoring.
Researchers were also able to use the blood test to distinguish early-stage Alzheimer’s from more advanced stages and from other diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and early stage breast cancer.
The incurable condition currently affects about 850,000 people in the UK.
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