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Blood test boosts Alzheimer's diagnosis accuracy to 94.5%, clinical study shows

medicalxpress.com

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Re: Blood test boosts Alzheimer's diagnosis accuracy to 94.5%, clinical study shows

#121

Post by tclancy »

TheCapeGreek wrote: post #63

PSA to those with family affected by dementia/Alzheimer's at a relatively early age (say Left untreated for a very long time (decade+), it spreads to the brain and causes dementia among other things. Older generations with stigmas, taboos, or from lower educational backgrounds seem (to me) less likely to get tested, so it seems plausible. Source: Have recently discovered this myself with a family member from their ne…

Flip side, if you have an older relative who, all of a sudden, seems to have a lot of symptoms that suggest dementia, have them get tested for a UTI.

Re: Blood test boosts Alzheimer's diagnosis accuracy to 94.5%, clinical study shows

#122

Post by MagicMoonlight »

dataflow wrote: post #74
janeway wrote: post #51

“We have no cure. I don’t want to know.” If astronomers announced that a large asteroid might strike Earth in twenty years, and that we currently had no way to deflect it, nobody would respond by saying, “Come back when you already have the rocket.” We would immediately build better telescopes to track it precisely, refine its trajectory models, and begin developing propulsion systems capable of interception. You do…

This analogy has a rather fatal flaw, which is that we already know people who've gotten Alzheimer's , and we also know for a fact people will continue to fall victim to it, at a pretty predictable rate. i.e. the detection has already happened ! Anyone who was waiting for a potential victim to appear before researching the cure already has all the reasons they need to research it. Detecting whom exactly the next vict…

If you know they’re going to have it twenty years early, then you can try out preventative treatments. You can look at causes. You can get them to put power of attorney in place and prepare for their future.

Why are you so furious about the idea of people knowing?

Re: Blood test boosts Alzheimer's diagnosis accuracy to 94.5%, clinical study shows

#123

Post by wongarsu »

friendzis wrote: post #107
dataflow wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This analogy has a rather fatal flaw, which is that we already know people who've gotten Alzheimer's , and we also know for a fact people will continue to fall victim to it, at a pretty predictable rate. i.e. the detection has already happened ! Anyone who was waiting for a potential victim to appear before researching the cure already has all the reasons they need to research it. Detecting whom exactly the next vict…

> Detecting whom exactly the next victim is going to be isn't really going to change anything as far as researching a treatment or cure goes. Your reasoning relies heavily on this statement, which is only true if occurrence is entirely random, which is in most cases not true. A condition can easily mask the cause of the condition and then you have a confounder(-s) that you have no way of controlling. If you can build…

And even if occurrence was random, there might be effects that can only be measured early on. By identifying patients before the onset of serious symptoms we can get a much more comprehensive medical history than by only looking once the symptoms are bad enough to make Alzheimer's obvious, or by monitoring large strata of the population in hopes of including enough future Alzheimer's patients in the sample

Re: Blood test boosts Alzheimer's diagnosis accuracy to 94.5%, clinical study shows

#124

Post by tgv »

A detail, but an important one: the blood test brought the initial diagnosis closer to the final one. The result reflects the agreement between both diagnoses. The usefulness of the blood test depends on the quality of the final diagnosis, which can still be wrong.

Re: Blood test boosts Alzheimer's diagnosis accuracy to 94.5%, clinical study shows

#125

Post by NedF »

janeway wrote: post #51

“We have no cure. I don’t want to know.” If astronomers announced that a large asteroid might strike Earth in twenty years, and that we currently had no way to deflect it, nobody would respond by saying, “Come back when you already have the rocket.” We would immediately build better telescopes to track it precisely, refine its trajectory models, and begin developing propulsion systems capable of interception. You do…

[dead]

Re: Blood test boosts Alzheimer's diagnosis accuracy to 94.5%, clinical study shows

#126

Post by snowhale »

janalsncm wrote: post #4

For a disease which (to my knowledge) can’t be slowed down or reversed, I think it’s a fair question why we would want to detect Alzheimer’s. Maybe there are other reasons, but my suspicion is that we will be able to, and an easy detection method significantly widens the pool of subjects to study later on. If it turns out that driving a Prius on Tuesdays slows down Alzheimer’s, a larger pool of subjects would allow u…

[dead]

Re: Blood test boosts Alzheimer's diagnosis accuracy to 94.5%, clinical study shows

#128

Post by FrustratedMonky »

janeway wrote: post #51

“We have no cure. I don’t want to know.” If astronomers announced that a large asteroid might strike Earth in twenty years, and that we currently had no way to deflect it, nobody would respond by saying, “Come back when you already have the rocket.” We would immediately build better telescopes to track it precisely, refine its trajectory models, and begin developing propulsion systems capable of interception. You do…

When can we get it?

I do want to know.

If it is positive, that is still helping you accurately deal with whatever is happening to you.

Re: Blood test boosts Alzheimer's diagnosis accuracy to 94.5%, clinical study shows

#129

Post by criddell »

hn1986 wrote: post #16
janalsncm wrote: post #4

For a disease which (to my knowledge) can’t be slowed down or reversed, I think it’s a fair question why we would want to detect Alzheimer’s. Maybe there are other reasons, but my suspicion is that we will be able to, and an easy detection method significantly widens the pool of subjects to study later on. If it turns out that driving a Prius on Tuesdays slows down Alzheimer’s, a larger pool of subjects would allow u…

there are treatments that can help slow progression, especially if it's found early.

What are they? I've read about basic lifestyle suggestions (diet and exercise), but I consider that the baseline. What can be done beyond that?

Re: Blood test boosts Alzheimer's diagnosis accuracy to 94.5%, clinical study shows

#130

Post by TheCapeGreek »

bonsai_spool wrote: post #102
TheCapeGreek wrote: post #63

PSA to those with family affected by dementia/Alzheimer's at a relatively early age (say Left untreated for a very long time (decade+), it spreads to the brain and causes dementia among other things. Older generations with stigmas, taboos, or from lower educational backgrounds seem (to me) less likely to get tested, so it seems plausible. Source: Have recently discovered this myself with a family member from their ne…

> Source: Have recently discovered this myself with a family member from their neurologist. The reason this was detected is that such testing is a standard practice with new dementia patients—among many other tests that identify etiologies of dementia. No need for a 'PSA'.

Definitely not the case, not in all regions, not even within the same country.

We only found out for my family member after the 3rd neurologist's opinion after ~2 years of this.

Not everyone does their professional due diligence - cue endless anecdata about the healthcare industry. It's good to just be aware.

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