Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health doctors are directing a multisite clinical trial testing the reliability of a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease. Small blood samples allow scientists to identify abnormal protein levels that are associated with the disease – a technique that may prove to be less invasive but equally as effective as similar techniques, including the cerebral spinal fluid test also under exploration.

The current method of Alzheimer’s diagnosis uses a combination of brain imagery, psychiatric tests and behavior analysis – however, the only known way to definitively diagnose the disease is by examining brain tissue after a patient dies.

If the blood test trial is a success, it could provide the foundation for a test that would detect the disease before symptoms arise at all, and doctors say, the earlier Alzheimer’s is diagnosed, the better.

While the disease may begin as many as ten years before the patient experiences symptoms such as memory loss, early detection allows doctors the opportunity to slow the disease’s progression with existing drugs and therapeutic interventions. It also gives families a chance to plan for the future, as there is not yet a cure for people living with Alzheimer’s – an estimated 5.3 million Americans. If the trends continue, 16 million Americans could be suffering with the disease by 2050.

Alzheimer’s is currently the third most expensive disease in the U.S., costing an average of $174,000 per patient from diagnosis to death. Additionally, caregivers for those living with Alzheimer’s disease are deprived of an average of $500,000 in lost wages, benefits and missed promotions over the course of their career.

According to current research, delaying the onset of the disease by five years could save the U.S. approximately $8.5 trillion by 2050.

For more information, please visit www.ClevelandClinic.org/BrainHealth.

Photo: Provided by Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health