Simple blood test

New studies suggest that a simple blood test could be accurate in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease. As alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia a test like this has long been sought out. Over 5 million people in the United States alone suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s is currently diagnosed through a series of memory tests and evaluation of thinking skills that are sometimes inaccurate. Other alternative forms of testing can be very invasive or costly such as spinal taps and brain scans, this is why diagnosis through simple blood test would be a great improvement.

 

Tau protein

Research has found that certain protein found in the blood can serve as an indicator for the disease. These protein are known as Tau proteins and have proven to be successful indicators for the disease in a couple of additional studies as well. All research still requires additional testing and validation before it is considered reliable however these strides are in the right direction. Current accuracy of the blood test diagnosis ranges from 89-98% percent and is expected to improve. The next step is to test these efforts within a larger and more diverse sample population, to determine further accuracy. Current treatment for Alzheimer’s does not slow down progression of the disease and there only exists drugs to help mitigate some if its symptoms. The hope if that as we learn more and more about the disease and how to most accurately identify it within individuals, other similar progressions can be made.

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