By: Erin Moore for Body1A breakthrough in the quest to better understand Alzheimer’s disease has occurred. Stanford researchers say they have found a simple blood test that has the potential to determine if an individual has the disease or is likely to get it. Although in the early stages, scientists say this line of research could revolutionize the diagnosis and perhaps ultimately the treatment of Alzheimer’s.
Prior work has indicated that the presence of changes in brain function could be detected in the blood. Taking that hypothesis a step further, Stanford postdoctoral fellow Markus Britschgi and his team studied 120 blood plasma proteins. Britschgi says 18 carried information about whether the patient would develop Alzheimer’s disease or not. They were successful in determining presence of AD (present or absent) in 90 percent of cases in a 92-person group.
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