Screening for Alzheimer’s normally focuses upon warning signs such as memory loss, difficulty performing familiar tasks and confusion with time or place.  Often these symptoms are mistaken as part of normal aging but in fact signal the onset of Alzheimer’s.

As part of regular screening for the brain disease, some Alzheimer’s specialists regularly conduct MRI scans to examine the structure of the brain and monitor changes.  Identifying shrinking in the memory centre or hippocampus and other areas of the brain may provide clues to the progression of Alzheimer’s normally missed.

Establishing a baseline for Alzheimer’s screening and evaluating a patient’s progression may provide some standard tests doctors can use to determine what is impacting a patient’s memory.

Experts and researchers agree, diagnostic tests for screening for Alzheimer’s need to be developed and may be just around the corner as more and more focus is put on assessing risk.

The new blood test uses synthetic molecules to identify disease-specific antibodies.  This can help identify diseases such as Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, lupus and Alzheimer’s.

According to Dr. Dwight German, detecting Alzheimer’s at its earliest stage before any cognitive impairment starts may allow for new treatment strategies to be developed.

Alzheimer’s patients exhibit an immune system activation and neurodegeneration in several regions of the brain.  Scientists think there may be antibodies that are specific to the brain disease and these may act as a biomarker.

The new blood test uses synthetic molecules that can be modified easily and produced quickly at much lower costs than other tests.  The technology behind the blood test allows antibodies to be picked out and later identified.

With Alzheimer’s disease, the IgG antibody levels captured in research was approximately six times larger when compared to the control group or to patients with Parkinson’s patients.  Another antibody was also identified in addition to the IgG antibody, making at least two candidate biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease.

Throughout the research, this blood test identified Alzheimer’s Disease with a 90 percent accuracy.

Researchers from New York University’s Langone Medical Center have suggested that one of the first signs of Alzheimer’s disease may be loss of smell.  If detected early enough, this may provide an opportunity for early intervention before Alzheimer’s has progressed significantly, affecting the persons life.

Using mice with varying levels of amyloid plaques generally associated with Alzheimer’s disease, researchers discovered that these plaques most often affected the area responsible for smell first.  This could result in a new smell test being used for the detection of Alzheimer’s disease because even a small amount of amyloid plaques would result in a loss of smell.

Using loss of smell as an early sign of Alzheimer’s diease, it is hoped that new diagnostic test for Alzheimer’s could be developed.  This would allow treatment of Alzheimer’s before it progressed to a point having severe impact on a persons life.

Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease has been the focus of several research initiatives.  It is hoped that this research will allow for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease and eliminate confusion associated with other brain disorders that may be caused by strokes or even drug reactions.

One area of research focusing on the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease is the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.  Scientists in this research program have made enough comparisons between images from scans and autopsies that they understand changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Another group from the University of California have used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in their work on the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease.  They have discovered changes in the brain’s memory regions that offer measures of the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have evaluated measurable levels of a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease in assessing the risk of developing the disease and losing brain volume later in life.  It is hoped that a routine test can be developed to provide early detection of Alzheimer’s disease.

With the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease being made possible by such research, patients may begin receiving treatments much ealier.  Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease will hopefully lead to finding drugs that can halt the progression of the brain disease.