Future Alzheimer’s Diagnosis May be Predicted by Blood Test

New research on Alzheimer’s detection has revealed that a blood test can detect the disease 10 years prior to diagnosis. The researchers that tested for the protein IRS-1 in 174 individuals were able to predict whether each individual had Alzheimer’s, even when diagnosis of the disease was 10 years away. The research has raised ethical questions over whether it is more harmful than helpful for individuals to know years in the future that they will develop the disease without any clear preventative measures to take.

See Stephanie Guzowski, Predicting Alzheimer’s Disease With Blood Tests: Early Detection, Ethical Concerns, Bioscience Technology, Dec. 4, 2014.