[선발]ING-영자신문

Dementia Diagnosis by Blood

21019 Lee WooJung

 Dementia itself doesn’t mean a single disease, but it is a term that means a condition that several cognitive disorders, including memory, are unable to maintain the previous level of everyday life. Dementia means a variety of symptoms that the normal brain is damaged or destroyed by a external cause, such as acquired trauma or disease, resulting in a general decrease in the cognitive function, such as intelligence, learning and language, and higher mental functions. Three of the most important causes of dementia are Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and Louise Dementia. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, occupying about 50% of the total cause. It is said that Alzheimer‘s disease starts to develop in the brain for up to 20 years before the symptoms start to develop. A blood test to detect such early brain changes has been developed, the Science Daily reported.  The blood test method, developed by a research team led by a professor of neurology at the University of Washington, was found to be as correct as the dementia standard test method. The blood test method correctly measures the amount of amyloid beta 40 and 42 - two types of abnormal protein amyloid beta in brain nerve cells known to be the cause of dementia - with mass analytical method, the team said. The research team compared the accuracy of the blood test method to 158 adults aged 50 or older. All except for 10 percent of them had normal cognitive functions. They were tested positive and negative for amyloid beta, according to blood tests and PET results, which matched 88% PET results. In order to improve accuracy, the team added three variables: age and dementia risk, which are the biggest risk factors for dementia, APOE4, and gender. As a result, the accuracy of blood tests rose to 94 percent when age and dementia variation genes were added. Gender had little effect on improving accuracy. Some participants in the clinical tests had positive blood test results and negative PET results, which were judged to be false positives at first. However, they got positive judgment at PET four years later on average. This doesn’t mean that the first blood test produced positive results, but suggests that the PET correctly caught the missed signal, the team indicated. The research team believes that the need for PET can be reduced by two -thirds if the blood test is conducted first. The blood test method is also expected to be used to select participants for clinical tests of dementia prevention methods.