Blood test detects Alzheimer's damage before symptoms

A simple blood test reliably detects signs of brain damage in people on the path to developing Alzheimer's disease even before they show signs of confusion and memory loss, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Germany. The findings published Jan. 21 in Nature Medicine, may one day be applied to quickly and inexpensively identify brain damage in people with not just Alzheimer's disease but other neurodegenerative conditions such as multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury or stroke.
"This is something that would be easy to incorporate into a screening test in a neurology clinic," said Brian Gordon, Ph.D., an assistant professor of radiology at Washington University's Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and an author on the study. "We validated it in people with Alzheimer's disease because we know their brains undergo lots of neurodegeneration, but this marker isn't specific for Alzheimer's. High levels could be a sign of many different neurological diseases and injuries."