Study Suggests Major Breakthrough In Fight Against Alzheimer's

NEW YORK (CBS 2) -- It's being called a major development in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: A study released Tuesday says researchers may have found a way to detect the condition years before symptoms develop.

Right now, Alzheimer's is diagnosed using pencil and paper cognitive tests, and can only be confirmed by examining brain tissue at an autopsy. The new study reveals a potential breakthrough made by scientists testing spinal fluid from Alzheimer's patients.

They have found a characteristic pattern of two bio-markers, the amyloid beta protein and tau protein, in 90 percent of the affected patients. The discovery could help doctors diagnose people with Alzheimer's much sooner.

"We have to go to very early patients who have just the beginnings of Alzheimer's in their brains, and those are the people we need a way to identify, to test the treatments," said Dr. Steven Ferris of the NYU Langone Medical Center.

The hope is that there may soon be drugs that can slow or stop the progression of the disease if it it's detected at an early stage, before real dementia sets in.

Alzheimer's likely starts a decade or more before people experience the effects, and by the time a person develops memory problems and other symptoms, it may be too late to save the brain. If this test turns out to be as accurate as it seems, doctors would be able to test drugs on the patients before the disease destroys vital areas of the brain. The hope is that doctors could stop or delay Alzheimer's in folks who have a positive spinal tap.

The question doctors are now asking is whether or not a test should be offered for a disease that so far as no treatment.