Scientists find new way to diagnose Alzheimer's disease at the earliest stages  

Scientists in Sweden have developed a simple and reliable method for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease at the earliest stages, which can help to better control the disease.

Their approach includes a blood test and three cognitive tests that take as little as 10 minutes to complete. The accuracy of the new method is 90%.

The study, the results of which were published in the journal Nature Medicine, involved 340 patients from Sweden and 543 patients from North America with mild memory impairments. Experts assessed the level of biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease, such as phosphorylated tau protein in blood plasma, the ratio of two forms of beta-amyloids Aβ42 (in the 42 amino acid chain) and Aβ40 (40 amino acids), a thin polypeptide neurofilament in plasma, associated with Alzheimer's disease variant of the APOE gene.

Plasma tau protein detection with an accuracy of 83% predicted the onset of Alzheimer's disease over the next 4 years. Combined with the APOE analysis cognitive test results, the accuracy of the result was increased to 90%.

According to experts, early detection of the disease will make it possible to more effectively slow down its progression.

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