Groundbreaking blood test predicts Alzheimer's with 90% accuracy

US researchers confirmed that a blood test can accurately predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

16:58 10 March 2014

US researchers have used a blood test to predict the onset of Alzheimer’s and reported significant success. They showed that testing levels of 10 fats in the blood could predict the disease coming on in the next three years. The test accuracy was 90per cent. The findings, which were published in Nature Medicine, will now be tested in larger clinical trials.

Howard Federoff, professor of neurology at Georgetown University Medical Center, said: "I think there is a huge need for a test.

"But we must look at larger numbers of people before this could be used in clinical practice."

Dr Simon Ridley, from the charity Alzheimer's Research UK, welcomed the findings saying that they are encouraging.

He added: "To test the effectiveness of potential new drugs, it's important to be able to recruit people to clinical trials in the early stages of the disease, when such treatments are most likely to be effective.

"If confirmed, these results could also aid efforts to develop better tools for diagnosing Alzheimer's - allowing people with the disease to access crucial support and existing treatments sooner."