More opportunities to test for Alzheimer’s with new analytical method

The aim of the study was to investigate the accuracy in everyday clinical practice and the study was conducted both in primary care and in more specialized memory clinics in Sweden (Malmö and Gothenburg), Italy (Brescia) and Spain (Barcelona). In total, 1,767 people with cognitive symptoms were included in the study. 

“Even with the simpler method of analysis, the blood test gives highly accurate results for Alzheimer’s disease pathology,” says Sebastian Palmqvist, associate professor and senior lecturer in neurology at Lund University and senior consultant at Skåne University Hospital, who led the study together with Oskar Hansson.

Accuracy between 92-94%

The researchers used two cut-offs as the main method to determine whether the blood sample should be interpreted as positive or negative. If a test result is above the upper cut-off, it is classified as positive, i.e. the presence of Alzheimer’s disease pathology. If it is below the lower cut-off, it is classified as negative. Values between these cut-offs fall into a grey area and are not assessed in the analysis. 

This is very promising as this method is likely to become one of the more widely used methods in clinical practice worldwide.

“When the method was tested in patient groups, the accuracy was between 92 and 94 percent,” says Noëlle Warmenhoven, researcher and doctoral student in clinical memory research at Lund University, and first co-author. “This is very promising as this method is likely to become one of the more widely used methods in clinical practice worldwide, including Sweden.”

Lower accuracy in the older group

The results were slightly less reliable (83-87%) for the oldest group included in the study if only one cut-off was used. 

“For some reason, we see a slightly lower accuracy in the older group, but this deterioration was not visible when using the approach with two cut-offs,” says Palmqvist.

A simpler method

The simpler method of analysis means that a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease can be introduced even in small hospitals. 

This is of great importance, as the disease is often misdiagnosed without biomarkers like this.

“This makes the improved diagnostics more accessible to substantially more people worldwide. This is of great importance, as the disease is often misdiagnosed without biomarkers like this, and currently only a very small percentage of sufferers have access to these high-precision diagnostics,” says Oskar Hansson, professor of neurology at Lund University who led the study together with Sebastian Palmqvist.

Source: Lund University

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