第2281期:New Blood Tests Help Doctors Identify Alzheimer’s Disease

New blood tests could help to identify, or diagnose, Alzheimer’s disease faster and with more accuracy, researchers reported recently. However, some of the tests for the brain-wasting disease appear to work better than others.新的血液检测可能有助于更快、更准确地识别或诊断阿尔茨海默病，研究人员最近报告说。然而，一些检测似乎比其他检测更有效。 Doctors can confirm Alzheimer’s in a patient if they find one of the disease’s main signs: the development, or buildup, of a sticky protein called beta-amyloid. Currently, doctors use brain imaging or a special test known as a spinal tap to look for beta-amyloid buildup. Brain imaging is hard to get and spinal taps are painful. 医生可以通过发现疾病的主要迹象之一来确认阿尔茨海默病：一种叫做β-淀粉样蛋白的粘性蛋白质的形成或积累。目前，医生使用脑部影像或称为脊髓穿刺的特殊检测来查找β-淀粉样蛋白的积累。脑部影像难以获取，而脊髓穿刺则很痛苦。 Instead, many patients are diagnosed based on their behavior and cognitive exams. 相反，许多患者是根据他们的行为和认知考试来诊断的。 Now, labs have begun offering blood tests that can show some signs of Alzheimer’s. Scientists are excited about the possibilities that the tests offer. 现在，实验室已经开始提供能够显示一些阿尔茨海默病迹象的血液检测。科学家们对这些检测提供的可能性感到兴奋。 But the tests are not widely used yet because there is little data to guide doctors about which kind to order and when. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not officially approved any of them, and few patients have insurance coverage for such tests. 但这些检测尚未被广泛使用，因为目前的数据很少，无法指导医生选择哪种检测以及何时进行。美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）尚未正式批准任何一种检测，且少有患者的保险覆盖这类检测。 “What tests can we trust?” asked Dr. Suzanne Schindler of Washington University in St. Louis. Schindler is part of a research project examining the tests. While some tests are very accurate, Schindler said, “other tests are not much better than a flip of a coin.” “我们可以信任哪些检测？”圣路易斯华盛顿大学的苏珊娜·辛德勒博士问道。辛德勒是一个研究检测的项目组成员。尽管一些检测非常准确，辛德勒表示，“其他测试的效果不比掷硬币好多少。” More than 6 million people in the United States and millions more around the world have Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia. Its usual signs, or “biomarkers,” are amyloid plaques and abnormal tau protein that leads to tangles that damage neurons. 美国有超过600万人，全球还有数百万人患有阿尔茨海默病，这是一种最常见的痴呆症形式。其常见的迹象或“生物标志物”是淀粉样斑块和异常的tau蛋白，这些蛋白质会形成缠结，损害神经元。 New drugs such as Leqembi and Kisunla can slow the disease a little. The medicines remove amyloid from the brain. But these drugs only work in the early part, or stage, of Alzheimer’s progression. Few patients get the costly brain scans and invasive spinal taps that could show early stage Alzheimer’s. 新药如Leqembi和Kisunla可以稍微减缓疾病的发展。这些药物能从大脑中去除淀粉样蛋白。但这些药物仅在阿尔茨海默病的早期阶段有效。很少有患者接受这些昂贵的脑部扫描和侵入性脊髓穿刺，以显示早期阿尔茨海默病。 Even specialists struggle to tell if Alzheimer’s or something else is to blame for a patient’s problems. 即使是专家也很难判断患者的问题是否由阿尔茨海默病或其他原因造成。 Schindler said she sometimes has patients “who I am convinced have Alzheimer’s disease and I do testing and it’s negative.” 辛德勒说，她有时会遇到一些患者，“我确信他们患有阿尔茨海默病，但测试结果是阴性。” A limited number of doctors have carried out blood tests for Alzheimer’s in carefully controlled research settings. However, a new study of about 1,200 patients in Sweden shows they also can work in doctors’ offices. 少数医生在严格控制的研究环境中进行了阿尔茨海默病的血液检测。然而，一项对瑞典约1200名患者的新研究表明，这些检测也可以在医生办公室进行。