Spinal-Fluid Test Is Found to Predict Alzheimer’s [View All]

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Source: The New York Times

Researchers report that a spinal-fluid test can be 100 percent accurate in identifying patients with significant memory loss who are on their way to developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Although there has been increasing evidence of the value of these tests in finding signs of Alzheimer’s, the study, which will appear Tuesday in the Archives of Neurology, shows how very accurate they can be.

“This is what everyone is looking for, the bull’s eye of perfect predictive accuracy,” said Dr. Steven DeKosky, dean of the University of Virginia’s medical school, who is not connected to the new research.

The study, said Dr. John Morris, a professor of neurology at Washington University, “establishes that there is a signature of Alzheimer’s and that it means something. It is very powerful."

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/health/research/10spinal.html