Mar 26, 2014 – Alzheimers Blood Test

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ANCHOR LEAD: CAN A NEW BLOOD TEST DISCERN YOUR RISK FOR ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE? ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS

A constellation of ten chemicals found in your blood can predict with about 90% accuracy your risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease, a recent study purports. Michael Klag, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says the hype needs to be examined more closely.

KLAG: This study has received a lot of attention because it’s a great advance to develop an early detector, easy to use, to screen people for Alzheimer’s disease. There’s a couple issues though. One is it’s a small number. What we see in studies of any diagnostic test is that the first studies often are the most optimistic in terms of the results. Given the fact that there’s a cross sectional component and it’s only the first study, this is something, that while important, really needs to be confirmed in larger studies to see if this pattern of lipids in the blood does predict a group at high risk for developing Alzheimer’s. :33

Larger, confirmatory studies are underway. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.