New Alzheimer’s test reported

NEW YORK, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers Sunday reported progress in developing a blood test that can diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, perhaps years before memory loss sets in.

The researchers, mainly based at California’s Stanford University, said the test was about 90 percent accurate in distinguishing the blood of people with Alzheimer’s from the blood of others, The New York Times reported. The scientists said the test was about 80 percent accurate in determining which patients with mild memory loss would go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease during the next two to six years.

The results were published online in the journal Nature Medicine.

Dr. William Jagust, professor of public health and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, sounded a note of caution about the report.

“Things tend to get a lot of attention and they are not always borne out,” he told the Times.

Currently, diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is based on a series of tests but ultimately is left to the judgment of physicians, the newspaper said.