Study sheds light on early detection of Alzheimer's

Chinese scientists have traced biological changes related to Alzheimer's disease that happen as early as 18 years before diagnosis in a new study that provides valuable guidance for early detection and the development of drugs to treat the debilitating disease.

They ran regular spinal fluid tests, brain scans and cognitive assessments on a large number of people age 45 to 65 over a span of 20 years. Their study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday, was led by researchers from Xuanwu Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University in Beijing.

Researchers were able to compare the test results of 648 patients who were eventually diagnosed with sporadic Alzheimer's disease with the same number of people with normal cognitive capacities.