First Proven Diagnostic Test For Alzheimer's

An anonymous reader writes "A test that can confirm or rule out Alzheimer's disease at an early stage has been shown effective by US pathologists. 'With this test, we can reliably detect and track the progression of Alzheimer's disease,' said lead researcher Leslie Shaw with the University of Pennsylvania's Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative in Philadelphia. ... The new test is detailed in the journal Annals of Neurology. It measures the cerebral-spinal fluid concentration of two biochemicals associated with the disease — amyloid beta42 peptide and tau protein."

Comments

spinal tap?

[Dr_Banzai]

This Alzheimer's test goes to 11.

Re:spinal tap?

[kylemonger]

No joke. I think most people when faced with a lumbar puncture would choose to not to know, or to just start taking Aricept blind. A needle in the arm or the ass is bad enough, a needle in the spine is a whole other level of terror.

Re:spinal tap?

[MostAwesomeDude]

In all honesty, a spinal tap is not that bad of a procedure, provided that the patient relaxes and doesn't try to use their back for a bit after the tap is done. Oh, and yeah, it hurts, but not (from what I've heard) any worse than a needle in the triceps, like a few vaccines.

Re:spinal tap?

[nospam007]

Not to mention that I cannot test my boss very secretly that way.

Re:spinal tap?

[Inda]

Interesting.

I had to hold down my 3 year old daughter while they stuck a needle in her spine. This is a standard test for meningitis.

If I could have made her relax, or even taken the needle myself, I would have done it. The memory haunts me to this day.

She had a bladder infection, thank fuck.

Re:spinal tap?

[hesaigo999ca]

I love pain, where do I sign up?

Re:spinal tap?

[Suicide Drink]

I had to get a spinal tap done when I was younger. I was hospitalized for a little while and I thought I felt fucked up because of the drugs or the illness. When I got sent home from the hospital I still couldn't move around very well and was stuck in bed. But no, years later I had another bout of whatever it was I had, and this time I didn't get a spinal tap, and was up and about in a couple of days after the illness had past. The most horrendous part is that they lost the results of the test for which the spinal tap was taken. Of course, given the choice between getting Alzheimer's treated early on and being laid up for a week, I think I'd rather avoid the Alzheimer's. My friend's grandmother had it and my grandfather had it. For me, there's hardly anything worse.

Re:spinal tap?

[alexo]

I got one done in my early teens.
Definitely not fun but not as bad as you make it sound.

Re:spinal tap?

[omris]

I could see choosing even a very unpleasant spinal tap over having AD, but that's not really the choice being offered here. It's having a potentially unpleasant procedure to find out that yes, you do in fact have this disease, about which we can do almost nothing.

The meds we have now are really piss poor. Do crosswords and hard math problems a lot. It's cheaper and WAY less painful. Plus it might actually help.

Guess where I'm taking mom to-morrow

[Anonymous Coward]

After that, the court order...

Re:Guess where I'm taking mom to-morrow

[Anonymous Coward]

then we'll see who"s living in the basement, mother!

I may have Alzheimer's

[Anonymous Coward]

But at least I don't have Alzheimer's.

Re:I may have Alzheimer's

[rts008]

Yo' dawg, we heard you like Alzheimer', so we put a...What??!?!?!? Who are you?

Ohhhh! Shiny!

Head a splodes...or not, I forget...*goes back to editing on /.*

Re:I may have Alzheimer's

[Doug Neal]

The best thing about Alzheimer's is that you can hide your own easter eggs.

Not april fools

[BlueParrot]

This is not april fools people. Was reported in Swedish media some time ago.

Re:Not april fools

[Spatial]

Watch out, he's trying to catch you off guard!

Re:Not april fools

[AKAImBatman]

Are you kidding me? The article clearly says that the researcher forgot how it worked immediately after discovering it. How is that not an April Fools joke?

Re:Not april fools

[MrMista_B]

Yeah, but given the way the /. editors shit all over the page on April 1, who knows for sure?

Re:Not april fools

[icebrain]

I would hope they wouldn't sink to joking about this...

Re:Not april fools

[GospelHead821]

Oh, I'm so glad I saw this post. You just reminded me that I need to STAY AWAY from Slashdot tomorrow. Some sites have subtle, actually-humorous April Fool's Day gags. Slashdot's are like being beaten in the face with raw pork loin.

Re:Not april fools

[Anonymous Coward]

What article were you reading??

Re:Not april fools

[AKAImBatman]

What article were you reading??

Made you look. April fools! ;-)

Greater Good?

[Anonymous Coward]

Problem with tau protein is it normally just sics the kroot protein on you while they fire from a distance ...

Re:Greater Good?

[Anonymous Coward]

Haha, I was thinking the same thing.

Rap Stars?

[WarlockD]

The new test is detailed in the journal Annals of Neurology. It measures the cerebral-spinal fluid concentration of two biochemicals associated with the disease â" amyloid beta42 peptide and tau protein."

They sound like rap stars. I hope there isn't some kind of "group" name for these protein's.

Re:Rap Stars?

[Anonymous Coward]

Braincell killas, word up.

Good News Everybody!

[AnonGCB]

... Good news Everybody!

in before tasteless...

[know1]

what was it again?

The test for alzheimers

[Anonymous Coward]

What is your name?
What is your quest?
What is your favorite color?

Re:The test for alzheimers

[Anonymous Coward]

Heero

To become a hero

Purple!!!

Original article

[aibob]

You can read the abstract of the article in the Annals of Neurology at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122266379/abstract

Re:Original article

[ShaunC]

Annals of Neurology

Hmm, parent may contain a Goatse link!

Re:My first time, Spinal Tap was playing

[Anonymous Coward]

that's some creative writing.

Re:My first time, Spinal Tap was playing

[Anonymous Coward]

Creative? That's how it went down in 99.

Now...

[Penguinshit]

...if biomarkers for ALS can be found.

Fine, we can detect it

[sacremon]

We still don't have a cure for it, so you are just telling the person at present 'Hey, you have Alzheimer's! Good luck with that!". I know, there might be treatments that can take advantage of early detection some time in the future, but at present it would just be pretty depressing.

Re:Fine, we can detect it

[Mr2001]

A diagnostic test is useful for finding a cure, though. When doing research, it helps to know who actually has the disease and be able to measure whether it's getting better or worse.

Re:Fine, we can detect it

[wazza]

True. One upside might be that with a working test for Alzheimer's, doctors (especially those who aren't experienced in it) will not put you on other neuro-type treatments for diseases that look somewhat like Alzheimer's. At least then you won't be on unnecessary drugs.

Re:Fine, we can detect it

[twoallbeefpatties]

If we can find a diagnostic, we might find a way to help prevent/prolong onset, so learning earlier might give a person a better chance to prepare.

Re:Fine, we can detect it

[kaaona]

If only we could find a way to bring my dear mother back to her husband and family today. She's living in the world of her teens and 20s, and always angry that no one else thinks it's 1940. She doesn't recognize her two sons, and we miss her terribly. Alzheimer's is the cruelest of diseases.

Re:Fine, we can detect it

[PPH]

Let me know when they can help me find my car keys.

Re:Fine, we can detect it

[Anonymous Coward]

Identifying the disease at an early stage is the first step. There are several drugs under development which may at least be useful to reduce the degeneration associated with AD. Achieving this alone will be significant.

Re:Fine, we can detect it

[Anonymous Coward]

they're under the left side of the couch.

Re:Fine, we can detect it

[turing_m]

We still don't have a cure for it, so you are just telling the person at present 'Hey, you have Alzheimer's! Good luck with that!".

Knowing allows planning - for the person (as best they can), their relatives, friends and people at work. Consider the alternative. You have a person who is slowly but surely (although often with periods of lucidity) losing their memory, their judgment, and acting in increasingly inappropriate ways. This is a serious problem for all concerned.

If you know you have Alzheimers, you can make some appropriate decisions. It is a degenerative disease with a likely timeline. For one, you can set realistic goals - goals within your future capabilities. You can start wrapping things up because you know your time of being effective is running short. You can start figuring out who will make financial decisions, because eventually there will be con artists preying on you. And if you don't like the idea of not remembering your closest family members, potentially causing rifts with family members for no good reason other than your brain is dying, acting in a sexually inappropriate fashion, losing control of bodily functions etc... you can choose to end it while you still have the mental capacity to carry it out.

If you are a family member/friend you can realize that their brain is faulty and going to get faultier. They are literally not the people you used to know, so you can't expect them to act the same way any more. They may treat you badly and not realize it. If you liked them before, you can choose to remember them in that way rather than the demented person they become. There are a host of other things to get out of the way, powers of attorney and stuff like that. It allows you to plan, too. It won't get better, it will get steadily worse.

Another thing - as the boomers age there are going to be a lot of people with Alzheimers in positions of power - government and business especially. They will make bad decisions that affect a lot of people. Think Reagan with his finger on the nuke button, not being in his right mind any more. Jobs will be lost and shareholders will lose money as a result of demented CEOs. Mandatory Alzheimers testing in these positions (and candidates) past a certain age would certainly prevent a lot of problems.

Generally, people with Alzheimers are going to be driving cars, operating heavy machinery and inadvertently kill people. Enough of them and it's going to cause serious problems. Perhaps the problems will be obvious and pervasive enough that those in power acknowledge it, even though it conflicts with their generally narcissistic desire to live forever and not be reminded of their mortality, let alone be constrained against their will.

Re:Fine, we can detect it

[darkmeridian]

The future is now. Aricept can be used to delay the progression of Alzheimer's at all stages, but starting before the symptoms get bad is obviously very useful. Having a good test for Alzheimer's might make it easier to experiment for a cure.

Re:Fine, we can detect it

[Finite9]

Whats new here? They could test for Alzheimers 10 years ago. Seems like Sweden is at the forefront of Alzheimers research though. There is a very nice man called Christer who runs the Alzheimers fÃrening (organisation) in Sweden who is *very* active in driving recognition of the disease. I can imagine that a good reason for testing early is to rule out other things. My wifes mother dies of the disease 6 years ago, her uncle now has it, and her other uncle has another dementia, though not Alzzheimers. Talk about running in the family. If my wife starts getting aggressive long-term, then it would be "better" to know if it's Alzheimers, and not depression, or any other disease/reason. At least we could begin with treatment. On another note, I always get depressed when I read about new research...Christer was convinced ten years ago that there would be a cure in ten years.

Obligatory...

[Anonymous Coward]

Denny Crane!!!

Nothing about Alzheimer's Disease is funny.

[Anonymous Coward]

Try a little tenderness. The caregiver's bible is 'The 36-Hour Day.' Aricept is unlikely to make any difference. Avoid neuroleptics if at all possible. Try to laugh with, rather than at. Peace

Re:Nothing about Alzheimer's Disease is funny.

[aoeu]

WTF, over. What the fuck is wrong with you people. This is not funny, my mother is likely to die of AD. Really, try a little tenderness. Peace

Re:Nothing about Alzheimer's Disease is funny.

[aoeu]

The parent rant was due to the grandparent being modded +5 funny. I prefer insightful. Peace

Not proven!

[Anonymous Coward]

Til some else reproduces it!

Even the best make mistakes, over-looking a sample preparation bias could produce the results.

Did they pick these two markers out of how many? Chance could still explain it.

Skip court and legal fees....

[rts008]

Have Pink Flamingo, will travel!(check out Don Ameche)

Hell, in 15 minutes, who's gonna know!

Hint: She won't!(she==yo' momma!)

Almost a golden grail in AD research!

[blind biker]

Those who don't have a loved one with suspected Alzheimer's Disease (AD) don't even imagine how important this news is. AD is impossible to accurately decisively diagnose before it's moderate to advanced (before that it's just a non-specific Mild Cognitive Impairment), and even then there will always be doubts. AD is only decisively diagnosed after the death of the patient, when a biopsy of cerebral mass is made. No genetic diagnosis egsists, because there are so many genetic modifications that can lead to AD.

Anyway, this is great news for me, as I do have someone who is suspect to early signs of AD. I hope he can be tested soon.

You must be new here

[rts008]

Hah! They will sink lower than the Marianas Trench, without provocation!

This is kdawson we're talking about, after all.

And in other news,

[Anonymous Coward]

In other news, we now have the first proven diagnostic test for Alzheimer's!

Two years old?

[Frans Faase]

This kind of testing was performed on my wife in the fall of 2006 her in the Netherlands. In de december 2006 she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease based on the test results. I do not know whether this is exactly the same test as described in the article, but I remember having read that it was developed by a Dutch academical hospital.

Yup, not so bad.

[Dr. Manhattan]

In all honesty, a spinal tap is not that bad of a procedure, provided that the patient relaxes and doesn't try to use their back for a bit after the tap is done.

A whole lotta women get it done during childbirth, too, and do just fine. (Men are real wimps sometimes. If I had to carry the babies we'd probably have zero kids. Certainly no more than one.)

Well, okay, an epidural isn't quite as deep as a spinal tap, but the difference is millimeters. Accidentally puncturing the dura is pretty common. My wife had a c-section for our third kid, and she got the headache afterward that happens when you get a puncture in the dura leaking spinal fluid.

She's delivered the natural way, and the headache was worse. She wanted to do a VBAC because she was scared of getting that headache again for our fourth.

Still, I'd probably do it if I had the chance. Either way, I'd want to know. If it were negative, I'd be overjoyed. If it were positive, well, at least I could plan ahead.

Re:Yup, not so bad.

[More_Cowbell]

Well, okay, an epidural isn't quite as deep as a spinal tap, but the difference is millimeters.

Dude. I'm no doctor, and I've never had a spinal tap, but it seems like a few millimeters might be a whole hell of a lot more painful when you are talking about drilling into the spinal column.
Just my guess though.

Really good news

[DigitalSorceress]

This is indeed really good news as previous testing consisted of cutting open the skull and counting the rings.

I kid in part, but I could have sworn that the only way to positively diagnose Alzheimer's was in a post-mortem. If it's possible to detect in the very early stages, before it becomes debilitating, those who have it may get a chance to put some things in order and make their wishes (DNR, Long-term care options, etc) known to loved ones.

My grandfather died of Alzheimer's, but the doctors would never call it that. They mumbled something about "Organic Brain Deterioration" os somesuch (I was only 14 when he died, so memory's a bit fuzzy). We all knew it was Alzheimer's though. Formerly BRILLIANT man just utterly gone. The day I beat him in a game of checkers, I knew something wasn't right, and that probably a year before he showed any obvious signs.

April 1 is Opposites Day

[Anonymous Coward]

Everything on Slashdot that was speculative leining to false, becomes true. However, everything on The Onion is ripe for the picking and absolutely believable. See you in the Promised Land.

Re:My first time, Spinal Tap was playing

[Anonymous Coward]

Pics or it didn't happen.