The prognosis for Alzheimer’s disease is much better when patients are diagnosed as early as possible. And there’s great news on that front.
WTOP talked to two local doctors about an advancement in testing that they says will help patients get treatment faster.
“This is really big news,” said Dr. Scott Turner, professor of neurology and director of the memory disorders program at Georgetown University.
It’s called the Lumipulse Plasma Ratio, and is for the early detection of amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease in adult patients aged 55 years and older who are exhibiting signs and symptoms of the disease.
There are currently about 5 million people with Alzheimer’s disease in the U.S., according to Turner. It is the most common cause of dementia in the United States.
The FDA approval of the blood test came from a multistate study backed by the National Institutes of Health that tracked volunteers to understand the early biological changes of Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Abhay Moghekar, associate professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins, whose lab was involved in evaluating the blood test for FDA approval, said this will help avoid unnecessary tests and get the right patients on the right track for treatment.
“This is one tool physicians now have to determine if Alzheimer’s disease may be contributing to memory loss and to determine if further investigation is needed to confirm the diagnosis,” Moghekar said.
While the test itself cannot be used alone to make the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, he said it’s a major tool that can help screen and find the underlying cause for memory loss symptoms.
“The FDA label prohibits using the blood result alone to make — or to rule out — an AD diagnosis. It must be combined with your symptoms, history and a formal cognitive exam,” Moghekar said.
Moghekar said the blood test offers a better way to screen and give peace of mind or to help get patients treatment earlier.
“I see the Lumipulse assay as a screening compass — quick, affordable and minimally invasive,” Moghekar said. “A negative result can reassure families and clinicians that AD is unlikely, sparing them extra procedures. A positive result directs precious specialist time and imaging resources to the people who need them most.”
About 5% to 10% of cases will fall into the “gray zone,” according to Moghekar, which means doctors will have to rely on spinal fluid, PET scans and careful follow-up to see if the plaques are present, indicating Alzheimer’s disease.
“Above all, a lab number is only meaningful when interpreted alongside medical history, medication review, mood screening and a structured cognitive assessment,” Moghekar said.
Turner said the new blood test will help doctors identify and treat patients more quickly.
“We now have treatments that are most effective in early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, and we would like to identify people who are possible candidates for this,” Turner said.
Prior to this new approval, Turner said diagnosing could be difficult as they only has expensive and invasive tests as options for screening.
“Before this FDA approval, we relied primarily on PET scans of the brain, which are quite expensive, or spinal taps, which require collection of fluid from the lumbar space, which are more invasive,” he said. “So this is definitely a big advance.”
The FDA said in its announcement that 10% of people aged 65 and older have Alzheimer’s — and that by 2050 that number is expected to double.
“This is clearly a breakthrough in the field,” Turner said. “We now have treatments that are targeting the amyloid that accumulates in the brain, and this is one of the proteins that’s measured by this new blood test.”
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