We have been waiting for some time for a simple blood test for Alzheimer's disease. And now there is one. It's said to measure disease risk ten years before first symptoms, and you don't even need an order from your doctor to get it.
The test is being offered by Quest Diagnostics, and it costs about $400. It's called A-D Detect. While it's sort of an over-the-counter consumer product, it's not quite so simple.
You don't just get it done at your local pharmacy. First, your application for the test needs to be evaluated by Quest's medical staff, and they'll figure out if it's appropriate for you. Then you'll need to make an appointment at one of Quest's 2,100 test sites. (The nearest site to me is 62 miles away in Yakima.). So you actually do need an order, just not from your own physician.
The test measures the ratio of two types of amyloid in your blood, AB42 and AB40. A lower ratio of AB42 to AB40 indicates a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease. They say that this is not measuring the presence of the disease, but rather your risk for developing it.
So why would you take this test? To find out whether you should consider Leqembi or one of the other new monoclonal antibody treatments. If you're going to be spending that much money on a treatment (~$24,000/year), you want to know it's probably treating the actual cause of your memory loss. Of course, it also might tell you to start implementing The Dementia Toolkit of Beating the Dementia Monster!
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