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-- Studies confirm accuracy of blood test for Alzheimer’s

Gold standard approaches to diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) to retrieve cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to detect biological markers.

However, testing could become much faster and simpler according to a recent study that verified the accuracy of a simple blood test for the tau protein, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s.

A reliable blood test for Alzheimer’s disease would be a huge boost for dementia research, allowing scientists to test interventions at a much earlier stage, leading to new forms of treatment.

Researchers said the blood test distinguished Alzheimer’s disease from other types of dementia and Parkinson’s with a high degree of accuracy — 89% to 98%.

Additionally, measuring tau protein levels could help detect brain changes 20 years before dementia symptoms occur.

Tau protein clumps abnormally in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, leaking out of the brain into the blood.

Brain scans and spinal taps only identify beta amyloid plaques, not the tau protein.

A test for tau is important, experts say, because beta amyloid alone isn’t enough to diagnose Alzheimer’s as some people with high levels don’t develop the neurological disease.

The new blood test detects both amyloid plaques and tau protein.

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