Ten-minute Alzheimer's test
to spot disease in earliest stages before brain is badly damaged
A
ten-minute memory test that picks up Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of
dementia in their earliest stages is available for use in GPs’ surgeries from
today.
The test
distinguishes between normal forgetfulness and the more dangerous memory lapses
that can signal dementia.
Early
diagnosis would allow patients to receive drug treatment when it would help
them the most, letting them work and live independently for longer.
Barbara
Sahakian, the Cambridge University professor who helped develop the
CANTABmobile test, said that to catch people before the brain became too badly
damaged, the computer program should be used to screen everyone over 65.
Using a
touch-screen computer or iPad, patients complete six tasks in which they
memorise the location of an object and then recall the position a few second
later.
Questions
on how well the patient manages in day-to-day life are included, as well as
some designed to pick up those who may be depressed, rather than on the road to
dementia.
The quick
test is designed to identify memory lapses that occur very early in the onset
of dementia.
It
produces its results instantly, and can be administered by practice nurses or
other staff to free up doctors’ time.
A
patient’s score, which takes into account their age, sex and education,
determines whether they are referred on to a specialist memory clinic for
further diagnosis and treatment.
Grey matter: Earlier detection may help thousands of Alzheimer's sufferers live more normal lives
Research
shows that despite its brevity, the test is highly accurate at spotting cases
and produces very few false alarms.
From
today, GPs who pay £250 for a year’s subscription will be able to use the test
on patients.
NHS
Walsall is piloting the software and hopes to have it in all its GPs’ surgeries
soon.
Results
are instant, with a patient’s score, which takes into account their age, sex
and education, determining whether they are referred onto a specialist memory
clinic for further diagnosis and treatment.
Michael
Hurt, dementia care programme manager for the area, said: ‘We want to help
people delay dementia and have as independent a life as possible and delay
what’s going to come.’
Other British scientists have
developed a computer-based test that can be taken in the comfort of a person’s
own home. Many other researchers are trying to create blood tests that spot the
disease early.
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I always say that we may have this illness, but we are all so different.
This is my own daily problems, but I would gladly share anyone elses, if they send them in,