2024-08-06 00:33:12
A new Swedish study shows that they are also reliable in real-world conditions.
A study of more than 1,200 patients with mild symptoms of memory loss found that blood testing for Alzheimer’s disease in primary care has a 90 percent success rate. reliable.
Diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease can be difficult, requiring expensive brain imaging or a sample of spinal fluid from the spine. Therefore, most patients are diagnosed based on symptoms and cognitive assessment.
Swedish researchers decided to additionally investigate patients who went to the doctor for memory complaints and Alzheimer’s disease diagnosed by traditional methods.
They underwent clinical tests (cerebral or spinal fluid) and a blood sample was taken.
Lund University researchers reported at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia (USA) that the blood tests were much more accurate.
The primary diagnosis by family doctors was 61%. accurate, and 73 percent of medical specialists.
At that time, the accuracy of the blood test was 91 percent, it is claimed in the findings of the study, which were published in the journal “Journal of the American Medical Association”.
“Blood test can 90% accurately determine whether a person experiencing memory problems has Alzheimer’s disease,” said Sebastian Palmkvist, associate professor of neurology at Lund University, one of the main authors of the study.
Oskar Hansson, professor of neurology at Lund University, added that early diagnosis is very important as new treatment methods are being developed to slow down the progression of the disease.
“The next step is to establish clear clinical guidelines for the use of blood testing in healthcare,” Hansson said.
Abroad, laboratories have begun to offer various tests that can detect certain signs of Alzheimer’s disease in the blood.
Scientists are excited about their potential, but the tests are not yet widely used because doctors have little data to base their decisions on which tests to order and when.
“What kind of tests can we trust?” said Suzanne Schindler, a neuroscientist at Washington University in St. Louis who is involved in a research project that looks into this question.
While some tests are highly accurate, “others are no better than flipping a coin,” experts warn.
Doctors and researchers should only use blood tests that have been shown to be more than 90 percent accurate, said Maria Carrillo, chief research officer at the Alzheimer’s Association.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting about 7.8 million people. Europeans. According to the Alzheimer Europe organization, by 2050 this number will almost double.
Based on info from euronews.com.
2024-08-06 00:33:12