Tamara Thomas

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A study presented at the Alzheimer&#8217;s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2024 suggests that using high-performing blood tests in primary care could lead to early diagnosis of Alzheimer&#8217;s Disease patients and possibly reduce wait times for specialist care.
Current reports show that Alzheimer&#8217;s disease (AD) patients often experience delayed diagnosis owing to the limited number of AD specialists. This has been a cause of concern among healthcare providers and patients alike.
Dr. Soeren Mattke, director of the Brain Health Observatory at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and colleagues estimated the wait times for patients eligible for AD treatment, considering constrained capacity for specialist visits.
The researchers used a model that projected the US population of people 55 years or older from 2023 to 2032. Their model assumed that individuals would undergo a brief cognitive assessment in primary care.
Another key assumption was that patients are referred to an AD specialist if they showed early signs of cognitive impairment under three scenarios: no blood test done, blood test to rule out AD pathology, and blood test to confirm AD pathology.
&#8220;Millions of people have mild memory complaints, and if they all start coming to neurologists, it could completely flood the system and create long wait times for everybody,&#8221; Dr. Mattke told Medscape Medical News.
According to the model, without an accurate blood test for AD pathology, patients can expect to wait about 12 months to see a specialist in 2024. This wait time is projected to increase to over 100 months by 2033, largely owing to an increased need for specialist appointments.
However, when an accurate blood test is available to rule out AD, the model estimates that the average wait time would be three months in 2024 and only increase to about 13 months in 2033 because far fewer patients would need to see an AD specialist.
Dr. Mattke noted that although earlier blood tests were about 75% accurate, they are now about 90% accurate, &#8220;so we are getting to a level where we can pretty much say with confidence that this is likely Alzheimer&#8217;s.&#8221;
However, according to the model, the availability of blood tests for diagnosing AD pathology would have a limited effect on wait times because about half of those patients would still need confirmatory testing based on expert assumptions.
Source: <a href="https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/alzheimers-blood-test-primary-care-could-slash-diagnostic-2024a1000dvn" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Medscape</a>

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Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients often experience delayed diagnosis owing to the limited number of AD specialists.

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