Progress is seen on a blood test for Alzheimer's

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE

PARIS (AP) - Scientists are closing in on a long-sought goal: A blood test to screen people for Alzheimer's disease.

An experimental test did a good job of indicating how much of the telltale Alzheimer's plaque lurks in people's brains, Australian researchers reported Wednesday. If the test proves accurate in larger studies, it could offer a way to check people having memory problems to see who needs more definitive testing for the disease.

Many blood tests are being developed and a few are used in research settings now, but only the Australian one has been validated against brain scans and other accepted diagnostic tests with good accuracy in large groups of people, said Maria Carrillo, senior director of medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimer's Association.

The results, reported Wednesday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in France, "give us hope that we may be able to use a blood test in the near future," although that doesn't mean next year, she said.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110720/D9OJBJP00.html

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In this April 2, 2008 file photo, a physician's assistant in a surgery at Bad Aibling, southern Germany, takes a blood sample from a patient. Researchers are working on an experimental blood test that appears very accurate at revealing how much of the telltale Alzheimer’s brain deposits a patient has, and they hope it might be a much-needed first step to see who needs definitive testing for the disease. (AP Photo/Uwe Lein, File)

[WinkyDink]

1. I find this suggestion, in an article on Peter Falk's demise, extremely intriguing:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2016170/Alzheimers-Did-trip-dentist-accelerate-Columbos-descent-dementia.html

Did a trip to the dentist accelerate Columbo's Alzheimer's?

Researchers from Southampton University report compelling evidence that surgery, as well as injury and infection, can dramatically accelerate the disease and the rate of brain death in people who already have early Alzheimer’s disease.
The first stages of this type of dementia make the brain abnormally sensitive to the inflammatory proteins that the body produces to promote recovery, triggering severe Alzheimer’s.

[harmonicon]

3. Anecdotally I can see some basis for that.

My grandfather had Alzheimer's for many years, but it only got really really bad after a long stay in a hospital where he was also heavily medicated. Of course it could also be complete coincidence, or just the fact that both were signs that he was deteriorating in various ways simultaneously.

[canoeist52]

4. There are lots of allusions to this on the Alzheimer's Ass message boards.

Some of them attribute the rapid decline to the use of Versed as a sedative. I also notice a rapid change in my mom each time after her surgeries.

[pitohui]

8. talk about news you can't use!

so...as an older person at risk, now i'm not allowed to have dental care or surgery lest it accelerate alzheimer's?

truly talk about information that is of zero value except to make people feel like they're put in an impossible double bind

[Duer 157099]

9. It may seem that way

but it is valuable info for researchers, because if it is shown (and there is plenty of evidence already) that the inflammatory process accelerates development of AD, then the components of the process can be separately analyzed (as they are being done) and perhaps a specific molecule (eg, TNFalpha) can be targeted that blocks the negative effects of the immune response. All of these things are being studied.

Not having dental care or surgery clearly isn't the answer, because if there is an underlying disease condition that is causing inflammation, then leaving it untreated is probably worse than getting it treated. I suspect it's not the treatment causing the decline, but the underlying purpose for the treatment (and that is causing inflammation).

[elocs]

dupe

[elocs]

2. I hope they can find something soon because I'm getting older all the time,

as are all of us baby boomers. At least the ones of us who are still living.

[raccoon]

5. Off to Greatest with you! nt

[NoodleyAppendage]

6. The problem with this and other tests rests in the existence of plaque positive normal people.

The presence of brain plaques often associated with Alzheimer's does NOT mean the person is necessarily on the road to catch the disease or have the disease currently. There are numerous cases of false positive plaque-positive cognitively normal individuals, which reinforces that the plaques are a necessary (but NOT sufficient) condition for Alzheimer's.

J

[harun]

7. Also treatments that remove the plaque have shown to not

help either.

The plaque is a part of it but a lot more is going on that we still don't understand.