Alzheimer’s blood test can predict onset of disease with 87% accuracy

A blood test to predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease is being under development.

Research in more than 1,000 people has identified a set of proteins in the blood which can predict the start of the dementia with 87% accuracy.

The findings, published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, will be used to improve trials for new dementia drugs.

Experts warned that the test was not yet ready for doctors’ surgeries.

Research into treatments for Alzheimer’s disease has been plagued by failure. Between 2002 and 2012, 99.6% of trials aimed at preventing or reversing the disease flopped.

Doctors believe the failure is down to treating patients when it is already too late, since symptoms appear around a decade after the start of the disease.

Identifying patients earlier is one of the priorities for dementia research.

The British research group, which combines university and industry scientists, looked for differences in the blood of 452 healthy people, 220 with mild cognitive impairment and 476 with Alzheimer’s disease.

They were able to tell with 87% accuracy which patients with mild cognitive impairment would go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease in the next year.