Alzheimer’s disease can now be detected through blood tests

JAKARTA – Thor actor Chris Hemsworth recently took a break from show business. He admitted to wanting to take a temporary break, as he had just been diagnosed with a high risk of cancer Alzheimers .

Chris says he has two copies of the gene, APOE4 , which he inherited from his father and mother. This gene makes him at a high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease up to 8-10 times.

Previously, diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease required a great deal of money and time. This is because the control method is somewhat problematic and even painful for patients. Also, very draining.

The diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is usually made by doctors with complex techniques of brain imaging and cellular analysis. They will also perform an invasive and painful procedure known as a lumbar puncture.

Through this method, the doctor will insert a needle into the lower back to take a sample of the patient’s cerebrospinal fluid. Afterwards, the fluid sample will be taken to the lab for further testing until a conclusion is reached.

However, a number of scientists from Sweden, Italy, England and the USA managed to find a way to detect Alzheimer’s in a simpler way, namely by means of a blood test.

After studying 600 patients, they finally discovered that the newly invented test was highly effective and claimed to accurately detect a brain-derived protein specific to Alzheimer’s disease.

Thomas Karikari, one of the scientists who is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, said he hoped the breakthrough could help other researchers design better clinical trials for Alzheimer’s treatments.

According to him, blood tests are cheaper, safer, easier to perform, and can increase clinical confidence in diagnosing Alzheimer’s and selecting participants for clinical trials and disease monitoring.

However, Thomas said diagnosing Alzheimer’s through a blood test still needs more development and research before it can be practiced in hospitals.