"This advance, still in its preliminary stages, would facilitate early detection compared to current methods. The study confirms the quantification of proteins such as p-tau217, GFAP, and NfL in dried capillary blood, a simple method in which drops of blood from the finger are dried on special filter paper. This method allows for the identification of amyloid pathology, one of the main indicators of Alzheimer's disease, with a diagnostic accuracy of 86%."
"The test has been validated in a group of 337 patients, both with and without symptoms of dementia, recruited from treatment centers in Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Italy. The results of the study were published Monday in Nature Medicine. In current clinical practice, confirming amyloid pathology requires a lumbar puncture or PET brain scan, invasive procedures with a considerable cost for widespread application."
"The main advantage of the method published Monday is that it doesn't require a conventional blood draw to analyze the proteins present in the plasma, but only a drop of blood obtained with a simple prick of the index or ring finger. This system doesn't require extensive technical knowledge or a complex infrastructure for refrigerating, preserving, and transporting the samples."
Finger-prick dried capillary blood can quantify proteins p-tau217, GFAP, and NfL to detect amyloid pathology with 86% diagnostic accuracy. Validation occurred in 337 patients with and without dementia recruited from treatment centers in Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Italy. The method avoids venous blood draws, lumbar puncture, and PET scans and removes complex refrigeration and transport requirements. Blood-based protein detection enables earlier identification of Alzheimer's disease and faster referral to memory clinics, supporting earlier use of drugs that can modestly slow disease progression and broader, lower-cost screening access.
Read at english.elpais.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]