First blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer's goes on sale

WASHINGTON (PTI):

A US company has started selling the first blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer's disease, a leap for the field that could make it much easier for people to learn whether they have dementia.

It also raises concern about the accuracy and impact of such life-altering news.

Independent experts are leery because key test results have not been published and the test has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is being sold under more general rules for commercial labs.

More than five million people in the United States and millions more around the world have Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia. To be diagnosed with it, people must have symptoms such as memory loss plus evidence of a build-up of a protein called beta-amyloid in the brain.

The best way to measure the protein is a costly PET brain scan. (PTI)

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