In the United States, over 6.7 million people live with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and the number of cases is expected to rise to 13 million by 2050. In fact, one in nine Americans over 65 have Alzheimer’s dementia, the most common form of dementia. In total, the disease has an estimated economic cost on the U.S. economy of $321B.2
After decades waiting for impactful treatments, there’s finally hope. With recent healthcare advancements, having an accurate, confirmed diagnosis early in the disease will enable those affected by AD to take advantage of new therapies and also to make necessary changes to their lifestyle to help delay onset of dementia and/or disease progression. As a result, an accurate, confirmed diagnosis is more important than ever.
Cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers support early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s
Timely diagnosis of AD is an unmet need in clinical practice. The diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is often one of exclusion, determined by ruling out non-AD causes of symptoms through several evaluations such as cognitive exams, laboratory tests and neuroimaging. Unfortunately, this process not only could delay the formal diagnosis, but it was shown that clinical diagnosis can be inaccurate in approximately 23% of cases.3 The use of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers could positively impact clinical diagnosis for Alzheimer’s disease.4,5
In addition to other clinical investigations, an early Alzheimer’s diagnosis can be supported by CSF biomarker tests that measure amyloid-beta protein (1-42) (Abeta42), phosphorylated tau protein (pTau) and total Tau protein (tTau). Changes in these biomarkers reflect the specific Alzheimer’s pathologies such as the accumulation of abnormal amyloid-beta and tau in plaques, in neurofibrillary tangles, which are followed by neurodegeneration.4
Our FDA-cleared Elecsys® AD CSF biomarker portfolio can help confirm amyloid pathology for those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild AD dementia, and can support treatment decisions for patients presenting in these early disease stages. Learn more.