Blood test to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease has been a very difficult nut for the scientists to crack and there been quite a lot of studies in this field. One of the major difficulties with this condition is the delay in diagnosis and it can take long for the actual symptoms to set in. Moreover, tests to diagnose this disease are very expensive and complicated. However, scientists have recently devised a blood test that could accurately detect this condition.

The earlier methods used in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s included MRI scan, CT scan, tests for biomarkers in cerebro spinal fluid etc. Even though the test of cerebro spinal fluid is the most effective one among all, it is costly and invasive.

Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, have now opened a new horizon in this field by developing a blood test which aims at being more accurate, more cost-effective, and less unpleasant.

The study says that the test is expected to detect biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease even before the obvious symptoms set in. The test is devised in such a way that it can detect the subset of tau molecules (Combinations of related molecules with somewhat different properties) which appear at a high rate in Alzheimer’s patients.