Current AD blood tests offer reliable diagnoses by detecting markers of amyloid plaques, a hallmark of the disease. However, these tests, which can produce positive results potentially decades before cognitive impairment, are not highly informative about how a patient’s disease will progress. This new research lays the groundwork for a kind of test that could potentially predict symptom onset.

“In a clinical setting, being able to identify patients on the verge of symptom onset would be invaluable. Having this information could help us select the right patients for clinical trials and better determine which treatments are effective at preventing cognitive decline,” said Richard Hodes, M.D., director of NIH’s National Institute on Aging (NIA).