The dreaded brain disease Alzheimer’s is taken into account difficult to diagnose. For one thing, generally it comes on steadily and initially has no physical symptoms similar to pain or difficulty moving. Usually doctors first hear that an individual has problems with short-term memory. Not much happens until this gets worse. Then they depend on what the patient, sometimes the family, says and refer them to a neurologist for further evaluation. In most cases they don’t make a diagnosis without more data. If the memory problems persist, they might conclude by strategy of elimination that it’s Alzheimer’s or one other dementia.
The cost of diagnosis
There is currently no foolproof strategy to determine if an individual has the disease until an autopsy of the brain is performed. Before then, a physician may order a PET (positive emission tomography) scan, but that is unlikely to be covered by Medicare and might cost 1000’s of dollars. The doctor may additionally refer the patient to a neurologist for further testing, primarily to rule out other causes and to do some basic tests for memory problems. Again, this doesn’t at all times result in a transparent diagnosis.
Sometimes the doctor will refer the patient to a neuropsychologist who will administer standardized tests that may result in a diagnosis. The testing protocol includes speaking, paper and pencil tasks, drawing figures, and asking specific questions that the topic must answer. The results can reveal areas of cognitive difficulty that these tests measure. Again, the price of seeing the skilled certified to manage these tests can run into the 1000’s of dollars.
Currently, there isn’t a widely available blood test to diagnose the disease. But things are changing.
New blood test
blood sample
The Washington Post Reports that there’s now a blood test that gives good diagnostic accuracy. The article shows that the blood test is 90% accurate in comparison with other diagnostic methods. They quote from the article:
“Compare that with dementia specialists who successfully diagnosed Alzheimer’s in 73 percent of cases, while general practitioners only did so in 61 percent of cases, in keeping with the study of 1,213 patients in Sweden, published on Sunday in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and presented the identical day on the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia.”
The blood test measures certain sorts of proteins which can be considered biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. These specific sorts of proteins within the blood reflect protein deposits within the brain which can be hallmarks of the disease.
A blood test may be extremely useful
There are currently about 6 million people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s within the United States alone. That number is anticipated to rise rapidly over the following few many years, and 14 million persons are expected to be diagnosed by 2060. In our work with families at AgingParents.com, we observe that dementia issues are essentially the most common reason people seek our skilled advice and guidance. And we see many families of seniors who’ve all the everyday Alzheimer’s symptoms but haven’t yet been diagnosed by a physician. We also observe that misdiagnosis is common. Doctors appear to get the diagnosis flawed just as often as they get it right. This also reflects what the Washington Post article tells us.
Impact on families
An early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia may be an important help to families who must plan for the care the person will eventually need. The cost may be enormous. It also has very necessary legal implications. For example, if the person in a family who’s accountable for funds is diagnosed, it’s imperative that they’ve an end date for managing money. Loss of monetary judgment is inevitable with Alzheimer’s disease. An early diagnosis may also help protect the financial security of the family or individual.
We do not know when such a blood test shall be widely available and covered by Medicare. But when it’s, it needs to be done by anyone who has memory loss that interferes with every day life. If this blood test is ultimately accepted by the medical community, it could help enormously in protecting the vulnerable, often elderly, people vulnerable to the damage brought on by Alzheimer’s. In the meantime, we still need to depend on the slower, costlier and fewer reliable diagnostic methods that currently exist.
