Blood Test to Give Warning of Dementia 6 Years in Advance

Only this week, researchers have reported progress on the development of a blood test that can accurately diagnose Alzheimer's disease, and years before truly debilitating memory loss.

The team based mainly at Stanford University, developed a test that was about 90 percent accurate in distinguishing the blood of people with Alzheimer's from the blood of those without the disease. The test was about 80 percent accurate in predicting which patients with mild memory loss would go on to develop Alzheimer's disease two to six years later.

At present, Alzheimer's disease is diagnosed by a whole assortment of tests, and that diagnosis still rests on the judgment of the doctor.  It would be very useful to have something like a pregnancy test for Alzheimer's - one that is simple and definitive and can pick up the disease very early, maybe even before symptoms appear .

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