Nearly one in ten people over the age of 70 have Alzheimer's disease dementia, shows a first-of-its-kind study that paired blood-based markers and clinical assessments to study the disease in Norway1. That prevalence is in line with previous estimates for some other white populations2. But there were also unexpected differences, including higher disease rates than anticipated in individuals older than 85. 'This is very important work from a beautiful Norwegian study,' says Nicolas Villain, a neurologist at Sorbonne University in Paris who was not involved in the research. The study, published today in Nature, shows that blood-based tools can improve epidemiological estimates of neurodegenerative disease. But exactly how to use these tests remains controversial, warns Jason Karlawish, a geriatrician and co-director of the Penn Memory Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Blood-based markers can be helpful for physicians treating people with dementia and for answering research...
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