New Blood Test Could Make Alzheimer's Diagnosis Easier Than Ever

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) researchers have developed a simple blood test that could potentially diagnose and differentiate persons with Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), reports UCSF News . A study in Nature Medicine detailed the test's effect on 362 people 58 to 70 years old. Included were 56 participants diagnosed with Alzheimer's, 190 diagnosed with FTD, 47 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 69 healthy controls. The team checked the blood samples for proteins that could be dementia markers, and blood levels of pTau181 were about 3.5 times higher in participants with Alzheimer's compared to healthy counterparts. Those with FTD had normal pTau181 levels while those with MCI due to underlying Alzheimer's had an intermediate increase. Monitoring the participants for two years revealed that higher pTau181 concentrations anticipated faster cognitive decline in those with Alzheimer's or MCI. "This test could eventually be deployed in a primary care setting for people with memory concerns to identify who should be referred to specialized centers to participate in clinical trials or to be treated with new Alzheimer's therapies, once they are approved," said UCSF's Adam Boxer.