The new, low-cost test could transform people’s lives and help others prepare for the debilitating onslaught of Alzheimer’s.
The breakthrough test is simple and effective and based on blood samples and an electroencephalogram (EEG) test.
The new procedure will be aimed at those already showing signs of mild cognitive decline, who are said to have a 20 times higher risk of developing dementia in later life.
The test could be a breakthrough in detecting early on-set dementia, in turn improving the lives of tens of thousands of people with patients receiving medication from an earlier stage.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a condition that develops between the stages of natural, physiological brain ageing and on-set dementia.
As Ansa reports, the breakthrough was made by researchers and included in a report titled “Sustainable method for Alzheimer’s prediction in Mild Cognitive Impairment: EEG connectivity and graph theory combined with ApoE”. It was published online in the Annals of Neurology journal on Tuesday.
The report said: “Innovative EEG analysis, in combination with a genetic test (both low‐cost and widely available), could evaluate on an individual basis with great precision the risk of MCI progression.
“This evaluation could then be used to screen large populations and quickly identify aMCI (Amnesic-MCI) in a prodromal stage of dementia.”
The tests were coordinated with Paolo Maria Rossini, director of the Neuroscience Area of the Gemelli IRCCS Polyclinic Foundation, Fabrizio Vecchio of the IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana and Camillo Marra of the Gemelli Memory Clinic.
Mr Rossini explained of the new tests: “Thanks to this study, knowing who will suffer from Dementia among those at risk will be quick and easy because they will need a normal EEG (analysed with sophisticated methods) and a blood sample (a genetic test to find a mutation linked to Alzheimer’s, on ApoE gene).
“To date, such a test is lacking clinical practice, which will allow medical and rehabilitative treatments to begin as soon as possible, introduce the necessary changes in lifestyle and guide patients facing diagnoses of Dementia.”
The test, which is cheap to administer, is ready to be used immediately, although further analysis of the test’s success rate is yet to be conducted by the Italian Ministry of Health.
Mr Rossini said: “The test can be used immediately in clinical practice, but its ‘testing’ is expected in a comparative research project called INTERCEPTOR, recently funded by AIFA and the Ministry of Health”.
In the UK, dementia has become the number one killer of the elderly above heart disease.
The country is thought to be heading towards a dementia crisis, as millions of people who will be affected by the disease do nothing to prepare for it.
By 2025, more than 13 million people who are at risk of mental incapacity will be unprepared, with no legal or medical plans in place for their future care.
Additional reporting by Maria Ortega.