Sept. 13, 2010 - A blood test may soon be able to detect early
Alzheimer's disease, new findings suggest. The blood contains no
single marker for Alzheimer's disease, says Texas Tech Health
Sciences Center researcher Sid E. O'Bryant, PhD. But by looking
at a number of different proteins in the blood, O'Bryant and
colleagues have found a "biomarker profile" typical of people
with Alzheimer's. By adding some basic demographic information
about a patient, the test becomes even more accurate. "In the
near future, we will be able to provide a rapid, cost-effective,
and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease using blood tests
as well as some simple questions," O'Bryant tells WebMD. "It
won't require a half day assessment in specialty clinic." An
earlier effort to develop a blood biomarker test for Alzheimer's
disease showed promise in preliminary studies. But that test
proved difficult to verify. O'Bryant says he's more hopeful
about the current test, as samples were tested at a large
commercial laboratory -- an