A blood test may predict dementia risk in women as early as 25 years in advance, according to findings from a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Wednesday.
Researchers evaluated whether there were associations between the levels of the protein plasma phosphorylated tau 217 (p-tau217) found in someone’s blood and their risk for mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, and dementia. P-tau217 has been studied for use as a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease.
The study included a cohort of 2,766 women in the U.S., ages 65 to 79, who did not have cognitive impairment at the start of the study. The participants were recruited between 1996 and 1999, and were assessed for up to 25 years, through 2021.
Among the total number of participants, researchers found at the conclusion of the study that 1,311 women developed either MCI or dementia — and that those who had higher baseline levels of p-tau217 at the beginning of the study were more likely to develop dementia or MCI.
But the outcome of the study revealed other interesting associations.
