when you do an evaluation of someone with memory loss to rule out azheimers and other dementias there is a fairly standard way to do the evaluation
do a good history and physical evaluation
do screening labs like a cbc thyroid levels and a complete metabolic profile for glucose liver functions kidney functions electrolytes etc
do an in office memory test like the mmse or moca
if its abnormal or if the history shows the need a more involved neuropyschological exam is done
do an mri if the above doesnt give you a diagnosis
this rules out masses or tumors or brain shrinkage or increased fluid or stroke or some vascular abnormalities
most of the time the workup can end here
since the diagnosis can be made
if needed more testing can be done
usually insurance doesnt pay for these extra tests
an amyvid pet scan for amyloid can be done
if a person has alzheimers it will be positive
sometimes folks who dont have alzheimers will have a positive scan
but
if again if you have alzheimers even if you are early in the disease process the scan will be positive
a spinal tap for amyloid and tau analysis of the spinal fluid
the amyloid and tau levels are abnormal in alzheimers disease
after all these tests above you can usually tell someone with a good degree of accuracy if they have alzheimers or not
of course
these last two tests are not covered by insurance and can cost several thousands of dollars
the amyvid pet scan is around $5000+
i paid over a $1000 for my spinal fluid analysis 10 years ago
researchers have been looking for an accurate blood test that can be ran on a persons blood so they dont have to have the expensive and uncomfortable amyvid scan and spinal tap
they are close but not there yet
recently as described in this article linked here
researchers at mcgill university may have found the blood test
also linked in that article is the original article on this blood test in the medical journal the lancet
as alzheimers develops amyloid accumulates first leaving plaques of amyloid that kills brain cells
the amyvid pet scan identifies the amyloid
its an expensive test
later proteins in the nerve cells called tau unravel and form tangles that get deposited in the brain
these also kill brain cells
the spinal tap can identify when this tau accumulation happens and also the amyloid accumulation
its well a spinal tap and it cost a thousand bucks to do the test
if you could do a good accurate blood test you could bypass these two test
at mcgill researchers think they have found it
the protein is called ptau181 which can be measured in the blood and seems to be accurate
even early on
when compared to the amyvid pet scan and the spinal tap for amyloid and tau it was just as accurate as the amyvid pet scan and the spinal fluid analysis
if you want you can read the article and go to the original scientific the lancet article to get more details
this is my simple version of what it says
so at a much lower cost you might be able to do a blood test in your primary care providers office for the ptau182 blood test to go along with all the other workup that they do ie the history and exam and the other blood tests mentioned above and the memory test and the mri scan
when this is all done then you should have an accurate diagnosis without all the expensive and uncomfortable testing of the amyvid scan and the spinal tap fluid
these are all tests that a primary care provider would be able to do
i sure hope this blood test for the ptau181 protein ends up to be the one we have been waiting on
the organicgreen doctor
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