A new study found that cognitively healthy older adults with high levels of a biomarker called p-tau217 in their blood had an estimated 38% greater chance of developing early signs of dementia over five years.

Understanding the Risk

According to lead study author Rachel Buckley, an associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, the p-tau217 blood test can help understand somebody’s individual risk of cognitive impairment.

Traditionally, diagnosing Alzheimer’s required expensive and invasive procedures like PET scans or spinal taps. However, blood tests that measure levels of phosphorylated tau 217, or p-tau217, strongly predict the buildup of sticky beta-amyloid plaques in the brain.

Using the Test

Specialists can use the p-tau217 test in people with signs of mild cognitive impairment or more advanced dementia. However, the test is not recommended for cognitively healthy people.

Alzheimer’s prevention researcher Dr. Richard Isaacson noted that insights from Alzheimer’s blood tests are invaluable, but results should not be the sole method of identifying disease risk.

Isaacson emphasized that ordering a single test increases the chance of a less meaningful result, like a false positive. Instead, he runs multiple blood and cognitive tests on his patients to double-check p-tau217 results.

Personalized lifestyle interventions, such as an improved diet, exercise, sleep, socialization, and management of insulin, cholesterol, and other risk factors, have reduced amyloid and tau levels in patients dedicated to improving their health.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.