- Researchers found that finger prick tests may be effective for diagnosing and monitoring Alzheimer’s disease remotely.
- Another study found that blood tests deliver over 85% accuracy in Alzheimer’s diagnosis, whereas primary care physicians have around 55% accuracy.
- Blood tests may both increase the accuracy and accessibility of Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis and monitoring.
Around 6 million people in the U.S. currently live with Alzheimer’s disease. By 2050, this figure is projected to increase to almost 13 million.
While there is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s,
Current diagnostic methods include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), cognitive tests, and physical exams. However, they have restricted accessibility as they require visiting a clinic with trained personnel and complex delivery and storage procedures for samples.
The accuracy of such tests also varies. A study found that around
Research also shows that up to
Improving the accuracy and availability of Alzheimer’s testing could help physicians diagnose the disease sooner and prescribe interventions to potentially delay disease progression.
Recently, researchers designed a method to analyze finger prick tests for Alzheimer’s that can be taken at home without the need for clinician oversight.
Another study found that blood tests can yield over 85% accuracy in detecting Alzheimer’s, whereas standard physical examinations deliver accurate diagnoses around 55% of the time.
The findings were presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and online.
For the study, the researchers included 77 memory clinic patients in Barcelona, Spain. All…
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