Blood Test for Alzheimer's Disease ?

  From Georgetown researchers, a ten phospholipid blood biomarker panel consisting of phosphotidylcholine and acylcarnitine revealed the breakdown of neural cell membranes inpatients that eventually declared themselves cognitively impaired such as that seen in Alzheimer's disease.
  The drawback, in real-world screening, the predictive value would be 35%, leaving two thirds of positive screening results in patients results to be false.
  By the authors own admission, this study requires external validation using rigorous clinical classification before further development for clinical use.
  Additionally, one must continue to broach the ethical conundrum of such predictive tests as this as well as CSF biomarker research results in a disease with no known cause or cure.
Nat Med 2014;DOI:10.1038/nm.3466