A new test promises to predict whether someone will get dementia, almost a decade before diagnosis. An international research team, including Associate Professor Adeel Razi from Melbourne's Monash University, have developed a new method for predicting dementia with over 80 per cent accuracy. It also allows researchers to identify dementia up to nine years before diagnosis, paving the way for proactive and personalised healthcare strategies Different from the commonly used methods for diagnosing dementia such as memory tests or measurements of brain shrinkage, researchers have developed the predictive test by analysing functional MRI tests to detect changes in the brain's 'default mode network'.
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion. That network connects regions of the brain to perform specific cognitive functions and is the first neural network to be affected by Alzheimer's disease. Associate Professor Razi, one of the study's co-authors, said previous attempts at curing Alzheimer's disease failed because clinical trials often focused on advanced stages of the disease, where the damage to brain cells was irreversible.
"Our new method for predicting who will develop dementia well in advance will be a game changer, enabling the development of therapies earlier in the disease process," he said. "This innovative approach bridges a critical gap in dementia diagnosis, offering a non-invasive biomarker that could transform early detecti.