New Alzheimer's Detection Study Promising

Protein Patterns In Spinal Fluid Could Help Confirm Disease Early

(CBS)  An estimated 4.5 million people currently suffer from Alzheimer's disease, and that number is expected to triple to more than 13 million by 2050, CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports. There is no cure but the disease can be managed and early detection is critical.

"Right now we have to wait until people have symptoms before they can diagnose the disease," says Dr. Norman Relkin of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. "Ideally, what we would like to be able to do is identify the disease before effectively it even starts."

Relkin says protein patterns found in spinal fluid may help detect Alzheimer's. Currently, the disease can only be confirmed with a brain autopsy.

In a study out today in the "Annals of Neurology," Relkin reports that finding these patterns — or biomarkers — is like finding a fingerprint for the disease. It's an important step forward in understanding this devastating disease and how it develops. But the test is not yet ready for clinical use.

The test is "a little over 90 percent" accurate, Relkin says.

Scientists believe a build-up of abnormal proteins in and around nerve cells is at the root of Alzheimer's disease. The theory is that proteins turn into larger plaques that jam communication between nerve cells and progressively kill them.

Relkin's spinal tap test is just one of several new ways of detecting Alzheimer's early.

"I don't like to lose my ability to remember things or do things right," Walter Kline, a 72-year old former computer systems manager.

Kline started having memory problems three years ago. His doctors began taking pictures of his brain with a PET scan and found he was losing brain cells over time. The diagnosis: Alzheimer's.

"To see someone that was your loved one to just become what I call a child, it hurts. It really does," says Peggy Kline, Walter's wife.

But because the disease was caught early, Walter began medication — including Namenda and Razadyne — to relieve the symptoms, even though the disease remains incurable.

"We were able to catch Alzheimer's at the first signs and get him started on treatment, and we feel we have stabilized the disease a little bit better than we would have had we not caught it early," says Dr. Murali Doraiswamy of Duke Medical Center.

But is knowing you have a disease before you have the symptoms always good? If there is a disease for which there is no cure and it is a degenerative disease that leaves you in bad shape, do you want to know?

"We have done a study which has shown individuals who have family members with Alzheimer's disease do want to know," Relkin says. "And getting this information about the future risk, even through they find out they have a gene that promotes the illness, is still a relief because it takes away some of the uncertainty."

[nancycain]

My mother was diagnosed with alhzeimers when she was 82; she is now 85 and it is 3 years later. She was diagnosed with 5 tests at UCLA. The doctor told me that the stage she was in she would not know me in 3 years.
I was determined to find answers. She first went on lexapro before we even thought it was alzheimers hoping it was depression. That did not work. She had a brain scan and we found that she had had small mini strokes in her brain. She was immediately put on aricept. We went then to UCLA and all the tests showed she had all the symptoms of alzheimer's. The prognosis was not good.
She has no hobbies and few freinds.
I finally found 2 things to occupy her time. One was dvd's so now every afternoon she watches a couple. Also she had loved reading. Fiction could not keep her alert but I found biographies she loved.
Last year she started exercising with a personal trainer to keep her body and mind going.
She is now at the point that you would not believe she has alzheimers. We once had to up her lipitor
to double the dose. Her memory and the same problems started coming back so she is now on a low dose of lipitor.
I feel I got my mother diagnosed early and with the drugs she is taking she is absolutely amazing.
Remember to diagnose early, DO NOT GO INTO DENIAL IF YOU THINK THERE IS A PROBLEM.

[nancycain]

My mother was diagnosed with alhzeimers when she was 82; she is now 85 and it is 3 years later. She was diagnosed with 5 tests at UCLA. The doctor told me that the stage she was in she would not know me in 3 years.
I was determined to find answers. She first went on lexapro before we even thought it was alzheimers hoping it was depression. That did not work. She had a brain scan and we found that she had had small mini strokes in her brain. She was immediately put on aricept. We went then to UCLA and all the tests showed she had all the symptoms of alzheimer's. The prognosis was not good.
She has no hobbies and few freinds.
I finally found 2 things to occupy her time. One was dvd's so now every afternoon she watches a couple. Also she had loved reading. Fiction could not keep her alert but I found biographies she loved.
Last year she started exercising with a personal trainer to keep her body and mind going.
She is now at the point that you would not believe she has alzheimers. We once had to up her lipitor
to double the dose. Her memory and the same problems started coming back so she is now on a low dose of lipitor.
I feel I got my mother diagnosed early and with the drugs she is taking she is absolutely amazing.
Remember to diagnose early, DO NOT GO INTO DENIAL IF YOU THINK THERE IS A PROBLEM.

[nancycain]

My mother was diagnosed with alhzeimers when she was 82; she is now 85 and it is 3 years later. She was diagnosed with 5 tests at UCLA. The doctor told me that the stage she was in she would not know me in 3 years.
I was determined to find answers. She first went on lexapro before we even thought it was alzheimers hoping it was depression. That did not work. She had a brain scan and we found that she had had small mini strokes in her brain. She was immediately put on aricept. We went then to UCLA and all the tests showed she had all the symptoms of alzheimer's. The prognosis was not good.
She has no hobbies and few freinds.
I finally found 2 things to occupy her time. One was dvd's so now every afternoon she watches a couple. Also she had loved reading. Fiction could not keep her alert but I found biographies she loved.
Last year she started exercising with a personal trainer to keep her body and mind going.
She is now at the point that you would not believe she has alzheimers. We once had to up her lipitor
to double the dose. Her memory and the same problems started coming back so she is now on a low dose of lipitor.
I feel I got my mother diagnosed early and with the drugs she is taking she is absolutely amazing.
Remember to diagnose early, DO NOT GO INTO DENIAL IF YOU THINK THERE IS A PROBLEM.