Submission + - Spinal-Fluid Test Is Found to Predict Alzheimer&rs (nytimes.com)
omnibit writes: The New York Times reports that researchers have found a spinal-fluid test can be 100 percent accurate in identifying patients with significant memory loss who are on their way to developing Alzheimer’s disease. The new study included more than 300 patients in their seventies, 114 with normal memories, 200 with memory problems, and 102 with Alzheimer’s disease. Their spinal fluid was analyzed for amyloid beta, which forms plaques in the brain, and for tau, another protein that accumulates in dead and dying nerve cells in the brain. Nearly every person with Alzheimer’s had the characteristic spinal fluid protein levels. However, should doctors offer, or patients accept, commercially available spinal tap tests to find a disease that is, as yet, untreatable?
