Health

New Blood Test Enhances Alzheimer's Diagnosis Accuracy and Speed

Jul 28, 2024 1 min read

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Recent findings from the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) 2024 suggest that blood tests for Alzheimer's disease could significantly enhance diagnostic accuracy and expedite both research and treatment efforts. The blood tests, which measure phosphorylated tau (p-tau) protein, an Alzheimer's biomarker, demonstrated around 90% accuracy in identifying the disease in patients exhibiting cognitive symptoms. This is a notable improvement over the 63% accuracy of primary care physicians and 73% accuracy of specialists when not utilizing the blood tests.

The study highlighted the potential of the PrecivityAD2 test, which combines plasma phosphorylated-tau217 with not-phosphorylated tau217, to improve clinician accuracy and confidence. This test, along with the amyloid probability score 2 (APS2) and p-tau217 measures, showed high diagnostic accuracy using predefined cutoff values. These advancements in blood biomarker testing could lead to more accessible and quicker diagnoses, enhance recruitment for clinical trials, and potentially transform Alzheimer's disease treatment.

The Alzheimer's Association is currently preparing clinical practice guidelines for the use of these blood biomarkers in diagnosing Alzheimer's. Further studies are anticipated to examine the impact of these blood tests on clinical care, aiming to refine and integrate these promising diagnostic tools into standard medical practice.

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