Spinal tap test can detect early warning signs of Alzheimer’s

AN ALZHEIMER’S marker in fluid drawn from the spine can reveal early signs of the disease in healthy adults years before any symptoms appear, research suggests.

The spinal tap test was 90% accurate in identifying Alzheimer’s in patients already diagnosed with the disease.

But it also produced positive readings in 72% of people with mild mental impairment, and 36% of apparently normal individuals showing no signs of dementia.

The test relies on three protein “biomarkers” linked to Alzheimer’s in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

Scientists found that people with different levels of mental impairment had different amounts of the proteins.

The researchers analysed data from 114 older adults whose brain functioning was normal, 200 who had mild levels of mental impairment, and 102 who had confirmed Alzheimer’s disease.

Their findings were published yesterday in the journal Archives of Neurology.

The authors, led by Dr Geert De Meyer, from Ghent University in Belgium, wrote: “The initiation of the Alzheimer’s disease pathogenic process is typically unobserved and has been thought to precede the first symptoms by 10 years or more. Therefore, demonstrating that Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers ... are true indicators of the pathogenic process at an early stage is a major challenge.”

The results were confirmed by postmortem studies of dead patients who had suffered from Alzheimer’s, and following up patients who developed the disease over five years.

They added: “Taken together, these data provide further support for the view that revision of current diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer’s disease is needed, or at least as far as early-stage Alzheimer’s disease is concerned.”