Dementia saliva testing 'shows early promise'

Conclusion The researchers are appropriately cautious in their conclusions. These findings have potential, but this is an early stage pilot – a starting point for further study. The tests were carried out in small samples of healthy people and those with cognitive impairment. They would have to be validated in much larger groups, in which it's possible the test would give different findings. The researchers calculate that they would need at least 100 people per group to develop models that could reliably detect significant differences in biomarkers between the groups. Even among this small sample, we don't know from the information provided that the people definitely had Alzheimer's disease. They were assessed using a range of cognitive assessments, but we don't know other aspects such as their medical history and results of brain imaging. It's possible, for example, that some of these people could have had vascular dementia. Even if further research finds a profile of biomarkers that is reliable enough at identifying people with MCI or Alzheimer's, there would still be many more considerations before introducing this as a screening test. For example, who should be screened and would testing offer any benefit over current diagnostic methods based on clinic assessment? Currently, though there are drugs that can be prescribed for people with mild to moderate dementia, there is no treatment that can prevent or cure dementia. Therefore earlier recognition at this stage would he...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Medical practice Older people Source Type: news