Scientists reported progress yesterday toward one of medicine’s long-sought goals: the development of a blood test that can accurately diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, and even do so years before truly debilitating memory loss.
A team of scientists, based mainly at Stanford University, developed a test that was about 90 percent accurate in distinguishing the blood of people with Alzheimer’s from the blood of those without the disease. The test was about 80 percent accurate in predicting which patients with mild memory loss would go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease two to six years later.
Outside experts called the results, published online yesterday by Nature Medicine, promising but preliminary. They cautioned that the work needed to be validated by others and in much larger studies, because there have been many disappointments in the past.
“Looking for biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease is a very hot area,” said Dr. William Jagust, professor of public health and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley. “Things tend to get a lot of attention, and they are not always borne out.”
It must be depressing to learn that within six years, ….six years….where was I?
This is a truly dreadful disease. My step father is in the intermediate stages of dementia and it is taking a heavy toll on the family. I pray that a cure or at least more advanced treatments will become available, sparing other families the pain mine has endured.
My grandmother, a dedicated churchwoman had it; a truly dreadful and robbing disease. Prayers for these wonderful and dedicated researchers – may their work bear fruit.
So did my father, for probably seven years before he succumbed to complications and died. God blessed me with a visit to Ft. Lauderdale where he lived and I arrived just hours before he died. Any advances in treatment and prevention I greet with halleluiahs.
Dad had it, as do 3 of his 4 siblings. My grandmother and several of her cousins had it, and we think my great-grandmother had it. Now my siblings and I are hitting the age it usually hits, so we are getting somewhat nervous. May these researchers find not just cause, but cure!
My great-aunt, grandmother and mother-in-law all had it. All have now passed away. I knew the first two very well, spent much time with both of them in my younger days. Sadly, I never knew my mother-in-law before she was in the advanced stages. I work in elder care and it can be a very depressing thing to deal with. Thankfully, there are some medications out there that do NOT
OK, I hit enter too soon.
There are some medications out there that do NOT stop the progression of the disease itself but DO stop the progression of the SYMPTOMS and can prolong higher functioning, namely Aricept and Nemenda. Of course, both have side effects and dont`t work for everybody, but 15 years ago, we didn`t have anything at all.