Last month, the first patients received blood tests as part of two trials backed by Alzheimer’s Research UK and Alzheimer’s Society aiming to introduce blood tests in the UK within five years.
Last year, controversy erupted among researchers after the US Alzheimer’s Association published guidelines proposing that individuals with abnormal biomarkers should be given a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s even if they have no clinical symptoms.
Pin-prick blood tests that detect possible precursors of Alzheimer’s disease are becoming available – but is it right to label people who will never develop the disease?.
The ADAPT (Alzheimer’s disease anti-inflammatory prevention trial) study is assessing a protein called p-tau217, which is specific for Alzheimer’s disease.
In recent years, blood tests have been developed that are just as good at detecting Alzheimer’s biomarkers as expensive brain scans and painful lumbar punctures, where cerebrospinal fluid is drawn from the base of the spine.
