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Spinal-Fluid Test Confirmed To Predict Alzheimer's

Posted by Soulskill on from the denny-crane dept.

omnibit writes "The New York Times reports that researchers have found a spinal-fluid test can be 100 percent accurate in identifying patients with significant memory loss who are on their way to developing Alzheimer's disease. The new study included more than 300 patients in their seventies, 114 with normal memories, 200 with memory problems, and 102 with Alzheimer's disease. Their spinal fluid was analyzed for amyloid beta, which forms plaques in the brain, and for tau, another protein that accumulates in dead and dying nerve cells in the brain. Nearly every person with Alzheimer's had the characteristic spinal fluid protein levels."

2 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. 100% of the time? by Some.Net(Guy) · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Did they only test one person because they kept forgetting they'd tested him?

  2. Und this affects NERDLINGS how? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I mean that my memory is fine, so are the nerdlings ever-present and accounted for here.

    When I was young
    I'd listen to the radio
    Waitin' for my favorite songs
    When they played I'd sing along
    It made me smile

    Those were such happy times
    And not so long ago
    How I wondered where they'd gone
    But they're back again
    Just like a long lost friend
    All the songs I loved so well

    Every sha-la-la-la
    Every wo-o-wo-o
    Still shines
    Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
    That they're startin' to sing's
    So fine

    When they get to the part
    Where he's breakin' her heart
    It can really make me cry
    Just like before
    It's yesterday once more

    Lookin' back on
    How it was in years gone by
    And the good times that I had
    Makes today seem rather sad
    So much has changed

    It was songs of love
    That I would sing to then
    And I'd memorize each word
    Those old melodies
    Still sound so good to me
    As they melt the years away

    Every Sha-la-la-la
    Every Wo-o-wo-o
    Still shines
    Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
    That they're startin' to sing's
    So fine

    All my best memories
    Come back clearly to me
    Some can even make me cry
    Just like before
    It's yesterday once more

    Every Sha-la-la-la
    Every Wo-o-wo-o
    Still shines
    Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
    That they're startin' to sing's
    So fine

    Every Sha-la-la-la
    Every Wo-o-wo-o
    Still shines
    Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
    That they're startin' to sing's
    So fine