American scientists have developed a blood test that can predict the risk of dementia in a woman up to 25 years before symptoms appear.
Researchers say that this discovery could bring a major change in the methods used for the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
The research found that a higher level of a specific protein, which is usually linked to changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease, is strongly connected with the future risk of cognitive decline in healthy women.
This discovery could enable doctors to identify women at risk decades before symptoms appear, opening the way for early monitoring and preventive strategies.
At the beginning of the research all participating women were mentally healthy. The lead author of the research team is Professor Alawaldeen Shadab from the University of California San Diego.
He said that such a long time period provides an opportunity to start preventive measures and targeted monitoring in advance, instead of waiting until memory problems begin to affect daily life.
This method would be quite different from current diagnostic approaches, because at present most diagnoses occur when clear memory decline and other symptoms have already appeared.
The scientists’ research report has been published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open.
The study included 2,766 women aged between 65 and 79 years who were part of the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study.
