Medical Breakthrough: New Blood Test Can Help Detect Early-Stage Alzheimer's
A team of researchers in the United States has come up with a novel blood test that helps detect Alzheimer's disease when it is in an early stage. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia or memory loss in elderly people in the US.
The team of scientists at the Rowan University claims that their new blood test can help detect even a mild form of cognitive impairment in patients. Mild cognitive impairment develop in Alzheimer's patients nearly 10 years before they develop severe symptoms of the disease. Such symptoms often prove fatal.
However, not all patients who show mild cognitive impairment develop Alzheimer's later in life. In fact, it could result because of a number of conditions, including depression, vascular problems, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis or traumatic brain injury.
The researchers claim that their blood test can distinguish between the different forms of mild cognitive impairment. In addition, it can also identify which individuals with cognitive impairment are at an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's later in life.
During the study, the researchers tested the blood sampled of 236 patients, 50 of those had mild cognitive impairment. The researchers say that using their technique, a small number of blood-borne autoantibodies can be used to correctly diagnose early-stage Alzheimer's.
The team believes that their novel technique can be used to devise simple, non-invasive and an inexpensive technique to diagnose Alzheimer's at a very early stage of its development. The study findings are particularly important, especially considering the fact that changes in the brain begin to take place many years before the actual symptoms related to the Alzheimer's disease start to appear. This is the reason why the technique can be used to stop the progression of the disease before much damage has been done.
The complete details of the study have been published in the journal of the Alzheimer's Association.
