Alzheimer’s Test In The Works Could Help Latinos

The FDA reported recently that a test to detect Alzheimer’s disease, but ultimately found that it wasn’t quite ready yet due to the need to train medical professionals who administer the test.

We’ve reported previously that Latinos tend to develop Alzheimer’s disease about seven years earlier than their white counterparts, meanwhile nursing homes in Latino neighborhoods have shuttered at a rate twice that of non-Latino neighborhoods. The gist of it is such an Alzheimer’s test would be doubly beneficial for Latinos because they develop it earlier and need to make extra arrangements for care.

CNN reported:

The test, a type of PET scan developed by Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, is designed to detect the telltale buildups of amyloid plaque in the brain that signify Alzheimer’s disease. While PET scans aren’t new, this one uses a special radioactive marker known as florbetapir F 18 and developed under the brand name Amyvid. It’s meant to be used when a doctor suspects Alzheimer’s; a negative test – meaning no detectable plaque – would tell the doctor to consider a different diagnosis.

While the test is considered safe, members of the FDA’s Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee said Avid needs to do more work training the medical professionals who would administer it. Panel members also voiced concern that there would be too many “false-positive” tests – in other words, too many patients told they have Alzheimer’s when in fact they don’t.