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

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

#131

Post by criddell »

melling wrote: post #6
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…

This again? The test is optional. Feel free to skip it. Tell 50 million people they’re likely to have Alzheimer’s then tell them where to donate towards a cure, or treatments to slow it by a decade.

I wonder if after services like 23andMe became popular and millions of people found out they have the Alzheimer genes, did donations towards brain research rise?

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

#132

Post by sandworm101 »

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…

These are 50yos, not elderly retirees. What if knowing caused your employer to deny you a promotion? Im in the military. This sort of diagnosis on one's file could have real impact on future prospects. People already fear ADHD tests for the same reason. I know a guy who is leaving the military after 20+ years flying transports. He is applying to airlines. If you were an airline, would you higher an experienced pilot with a positive alzheimer's diagnois in thier medical data?

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

#133

Post by [deleted] »

n4r9 wrote: post #104
fletchowns wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those plans should be in place regardless of the results of a blood test

I think there are many people (myself included) whose plans would change dramatically upon discovery of Alzheimer's, dementia, or some other degenerative disease. I might consider moving to somewhere with more liberal assisted suicide laws for example.

[deleted]

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

#134

Post by stared »

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…

Also, the Herpes family (hint: most of us have HSV-1), vide "Alzheimer's risk 10 times lower with herpes medication" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17540094 and much more, https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que....

And "The effect of shingles vaccination at different stages of dementia" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46164646 (yes, also the Herpes family).

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

#135

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#136

Post by TechnicalVault »

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…

The reason the test and actually knowing who is likely to develop the disease is useful is that we don't know enough about the early pre-symptomatic stages of Alzheimer's. A lot of research has been focused on purging the plaques which form in the late stages of the disease and thus failed because these seem to be symptomatic rather than causative. The false positives are also very interesting from a research point of view because if someone is testing positive for the disease but it's not progressing this may give us a clue about how to control it.

The other slightly sad fact is that is also quite likely that any curative treatment will need to be started before you start to show symptoms, because the brain has already lost a lot of it's resilience by then.

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

#137

Post by bonsai_spool »

TheCapeGreek wrote: post #130
bonsai_spool wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

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

Perhaps—but it's also possible that whoever was in the room with the patient declined STI testing (which I have seen, and which sometimes reflects lack of knowledge around extramarital affairs).

I'm just trying to make it clear that there are dozens of reversible/non-degenerative causes of dementia and there is no way that a fully-trained neurologist doesn't have these memorized.

It's like not knowing what a type system is as a programmer with a reputable degree—impossible.

edit: in fairness, many doctors have unease around discussing sex/infidelity—but the PSA maybe should be to encourage your doctor to put aside concerns around niceties in your parent's care.

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

#138

Post by scott_w »

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…

> 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.

Your point at the end is essentially correct. There's a couple of reasons that come to my mind:

Early detection lets us test cures more quickly. You can see if the treatment is working without waiting 30 years for symptoms to develop or not. If prevention is all that works, we can verify lifestyle changes, again without having to wait 30 years for symptoms to develop.

Early detection means there's more of a chance of any future treatment succeeding and the patient returning to a normal life. Think of early detection of cancer or heart disease meaning you can be treated with less risky medication and procedures and minimise the damage being done.

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

#139

Post by Spooky23 »

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…

Not really. Alzheimer's is about 60% of dementia, and is frequently misdiagnosed without a full workup. As primary care shifts to more poorly trained providers and doc in the box delivery models, you'll get less workups and more misdiagnoses.

A more objective blood test will make for more accurate diagnoses and and better treatment.

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

#140

Post by zoeysmithe »

kakacik wrote: post #93
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…

Lenin famously died from it, you could see that obscure blank stare of a crazy person on his later photos

He was shot in 1918 leaving bullets in his body and left him weakened, then in 1922 he suffered at least three debilitating strokes. He lost his ability so speak and had to learn to speak again. He even proposed assisted suicide because he was suffering so much. He then had a final fatal stroke in 1924. I don't think "he looks crazy so he must have had some STD" is medically accurate or remotely appropriate on what's supposed to be an academic forum. He most likely had brain damage towards the end thus his illness of course was reflected on his body looked. Lenin's eyes reflected his post-stroke damage.

He was quite sane in his life and his work expanding on Marx is of course extremely important.

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