Spinal-Fluid Test Is Found to Predict Alzheimer’s

[Xipe Totec]

Source: The New York Times

Researchers report that a spinal-fluid test can be 100 percent accurate in identifying patients with significant memory loss who are on their way to developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Although there has been increasing evidence of the value of these tests in finding signs of Alzheimer’s, the study, which will appear Tuesday in the Archives of Neurology, shows how very accurate they can be.

“This is what everyone is looking for, the bull’s eye of perfect predictive accuracy,” said Dr. Steven DeKosky, dean of the University of Virginia’s medical school, who is not connected to the new research.

The study, said Dr. John Morris, a professor of neurology at Washington University, “establishes that there is a signature of Alzheimer’s and that it means something. It is very powerful."

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/health/research/10spinal.html

[virgogal]

1. I don't want to know.

[Chulanowa]

2. It's pretty helpful, actually

There's something like a dozen diseases that cause dementia and most of them all have very similar symptoms. being able to identify which one a patient has prior to death is a pretty big step forward to isolating one condition from the rest and working towards a cure or prevention.

[Dappleganger]

5. I do.

My father has early onset ALZ and knowing early would help my family plan a whole lot better.

[Veilex]

3. awsome...another way for medical corporations to encourage

one of the most destructive tests that can be done to the human body (sans chemicals)...a spinal tap. A new (old) way for quacks to cause medical issues for thousands...and thereby create thousands of new customers! Lets hear it for good ole corporate medical enginuity...

Don't get me wrong, I'd love for some progress in eliminating that damn scary affliction, but unless they have figured out another way to get spinal fluid, this is just going to cause problems.

[Xipe Totec]

4. A little jaded, aren't we. nt

[AngryAmish]

6. Take test at 72

1. Nice bottle of booze in car in garage. Don't make a mess.

2. Wait for something else to kill me.

[Javaman]

9. It seems as if you read my manual...

In the quiet hours of the night, when my wife and I lay in bed and talk about the future, we came to the same decision.

If gas becomes to expensive at some point, I will use what savings I have left to get the last gallon.

[burrowowl]

7. Spinal taps are painful

I am 64 and still remember the one I got at 5 to diagnose polio. But it would be good to know in order to take take whatever preventive measures are necessary for avoiding living as a vegetable.

[avaistheone1]

10. That is my understanding as well.

Spinal taps are very painful.

[Javaman]

8. I'm on the fence. My mom just passed away due to Alzhimers...

will I get it? I don't know. And suppose I do and find out that I have it. Then what?

We all want to live to a ripe old age with all our marbles, but what if you find out you are predestined to get it? Then what? Blow my brains out at 70?

Or do I hound research and funding for such? Do I change my life to help promote it's research?

What if I don't have the means for either? What if I find out and I don't have the means to rally support for research? or I have issues with ending it all knowing I will lose my marbles?

I loved my mom, but a year before she died, she had no idea who I was. Thank god it was only a year and not years like some people have to live through.

We worry, because our society is set up in such a way that a major disease will destroy savings, may leave a spouse destitute and full of hardship dealing with the after effects.

I worry.

[CreekDog]

11. oh, but science is just a belief system

i read that here on DU!

:eyes:

[The Stranger]

12. Just start taking ibuprofen.

It's not necessarily a death (or dementia) sentence.

But you may have to sacrifice your kidneys for your brain.

Some would make that trade.