Quebec:
A simple blood test for people with a certain sleep disorder may help predict the development of dementia before the symptoms occur.
Idiopathic REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (IRBD) causes people to physically do their dream work while sleeping. The disorder is also associated with a high risk of Parkinson’s disease and a related situation called dementia with levy bodies. It is a form of dementia that often causes memory and cognitive loss, as well as a detailed visual hallucinations and movement difficulties similar to Parkinson.
Researchers at the University of McGill have discovered that a blood test developed to detect Alzheimer’s disease basically, it can also identify that patients with IRBD sleep disorder are most likely to develop dementia with levy bodies. Blood test analyzes two proteins in the blood that serve as a biomarker for Alzheimer’s.
Professor in McGill’s Department of Neurology and a clinical researcher in Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital). Ronald Postuma said, “Detecting the risk of dementia doctors how doctors guide patients, help plan for the future and potentially allow for more individual, effective treatments.”
Researchers followed 150 IRBD patients, tested their blood for biomarkers and monitored their health annually. Remarkable, blood tests, taken four years ago, predicted dementia in about 90 percent of patients who later developed the disease.
This study also suggests the early stages of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, which is higher than more than before.
“Our findings show that Alzheimer’s remedies can also be tested in patients with this sleep disorder. Perhaps, if treatment starts adequately, dementia can be prevented with levy bodies,” the first author Dr. Elin Delva said, who was a research companion in neuro during the study.
The research team plan to expand the study to confirm how well the test can predict the risk of dementia in other population patients at risk for dementia with levy bodies with how well the tests diagnosed.
(Tagstotranslet) blood test
