Alzheimer’s disease early detection close

BY ELIZABETH BASSETT
October 22, 2007

A blood test that could warn somebody if they’re at risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease could be on the horizon within five to 10 years, said Dr. Steven DeKosky, an expert and researcher of the disease.

DeKosky, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh, talked about advances in research of the disease and the implications for treatment. The presentation by DeKosky was part of the UNT Health Science Center’s Distinguished Speaker Series, which took place on Oct. 16. After the presentation, he and a panel of local experts further discussed the future of Alzheimer’s care.

“We’re probably where cardiac docs were in the ‘60s,” DeKosky said

of Alzheimer’s research. By the

1970s, though, cardiac specialists saw a dramatic drop in deaths due to better treatment and prevention of heart disease, and DeKosky said research

currently being done about Alzheimer’s could soften the blow to the health care system as the baby boomers become older.

“This disease is capable of breaking Medicare and Medicaid all by itself,” DeKosky said. The national Alzheimer’s Association estimates that in 2002, Medicare and Medicaid together spent more than $50 billion on beneficiaries with the disease, and as more people are diagnosed, the spending will go up.

Alzheimer’s disease, which affects more than 5 million Americans, was first described by Dr. Alois Alzheimer in Germany, who treated a woman named Auguste, who became the first recognized Alzheimer’s disease patient.

The problems with recall and memory in Alzheimer’s patients come from two abnormalities that form in the brain: plaques and tangles. Plaques are formed by long chains of proteins that deposit in the spaces between brain cells, and tangles are made of abnormal proteins inside brain cells and are associated with cell death.

“You can have Alzheimer’s disease without tangles, but you can’t have Alzheimer’s disease without plaques,” DeKosky said
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