Researchers claim they have identified a new indicator (or ‘biomarker’) in the blood that may help health experts predict a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
The small study by the Mayo Clinic, based in the US, tested the blood of 99 women aged 70 to 79 for levels of a fatty compound called ceramides.
Could a blood test predict your risk of Alzheimer's?
The participants were placed into three groups: high, middle and low levels of ceramides.
Over the nine-year study, 27 women developed dementia and 18 were diagnosed with ‘probable’ Alzheimer’s disease.
A follow-up found that women with the highest levels of fat in their blood were 10 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those with lower amounts of the blood biomarker.
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Women with ‘middle’ levels were eight times more at risk of dementia.
"Our study identifies this biomarker as a potential new target for treating or preventing Alzheimer's disease," says lead study author Michelle Mielke in a statement issued by the American Academy of Neurology.
"These findings are important because identifying an accurate biomarker for early Alzheimer's that requires little cost and inconvenience to a patient could help change our focus from treating the disease to preventing or delaying it," adds Valort Pavlik from the Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders Center of Baylor College of Medicine.
Pavlik adds: "While a larger, more diverse study is needed to confirm these findings, projections that the global prevalence of Alzheimer's disease will double every 20 years for the foreseeable future.
"This increased the sense of urgency among researchers and health care agencies to identify more effective screening, prevention and treatment strategies."