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New blood tests could help to identify, or diagnose, Alzheimer’s disease faster and with more accuracy, researchers reported recently.
研究人员最近报告说，新的血液测试有助于更快、更准确地识别或诊断阿尔茨海默病。
However, some of the tests for the brain-wasting disease appear to work better than others.
然而，一些针对脑部消耗性疾病的测试似乎比其他测试效果更好。
Doctors can confirm Alzheimer’s in a patient if they find one of the disease’s main signs: the development, or buildup, of a sticky protein called beta-amyloid.
如果医生发现阿尔茨海默氏症的主要征兆之一：一种叫做β-淀粉样蛋白的粘性蛋白质的发展或堆积，就能确认患者患有阿尔茨海默氏症。
Currently, doctors use brain imaging or a special test known as a spinal tap to look for beta-amyloid buildup.
目前，医生使用脑部成像或一种被称为脊椎穿刺的特殊测试来寻找β-淀粉样蛋白的堆积。
Brain imaging is hard to get and spinal taps are painful.
脑成像很难获得，脊髓穿刺很痛苦。
Instead, many patients are diagnosed based on their behavior and cognitive exams.
相反，许多患者是根据他们的行为和认知测试来诊断的。
Now, labs have begun offering blood tests that can show some signs of Alzheimer’s.
现在，实验室已经开始提供血液检测，可以显示出一些阿尔茨海默病的迹象。
Scientists are excited about the possibilities that the tests offer.
科学家们对这些测试所提供的可能性感到兴奋。
But the tests are not widely used yet because there is little data to guide doctors about which kind to order and when.
但是这些测试尚未得到广泛应用，因为几乎没有数据可以指导医生应该订购哪种测试以及何时订购。
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not officially approved any of them, and few patients have insurance coverage for such tests.
美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）尚未正式批准其中任何一项，而且很少有患者的保险覆盖此类检测。
“What tests can we trust?” asked Dr. Suzanne Schindler of Washington University in St. Louis.
“我们可以信任哪些检测？”圣路易斯华盛顿大学的苏珊娜-辛德勒博士问道。
Schindler is part of a research project examining the tests.
辛德勒是研究这些测试的研究项目的一部分。
While some tests are very accurate, Schindler said, “other tests are not much better than a flip of a coin.”
虽然有些测试非常准确，辛德勒说，“但其他测试并不比抛硬币好多少。”
More than 6 million people in the United States and millions more around the world have Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia.
在美国，有超过600万人患有阿尔茨海默病，这是最常见的痴呆症形式。在全球范围内，还有数百万人患有这种疾病。
Its usual signs, or “biomarkers,” are amyloid plaques and abnormal tau protein that leads to tangles that damage neurons.
其常见的标志，或“生物标志物”，是淀粉样斑块和异常的tau蛋白，这会导致缠结，从而损害神经元。
New drugs such as Leqembi and Kisunla can slow the disease a little. The medicines remove amyloid from the brain.
像Leqembi和Kisunla这样的新药可以稍微减缓疾病的进展。这些药物可以清除大脑中的淀粉样蛋白。
But these drugs only work in the early part, or stage, of Alzheimer’s progression.
但这些药物仅在阿尔茨海默病进展的早期阶段起作用。
Few patients get the costly brain scans and invasive spinal taps that could show early stage Alzheimer’s.
很少有患者接受昂贵的脑部扫描和侵入性的脊椎穿刺等可以显示出阿尔茨海默病的早期阶段的检查。
Even specialists struggle to tell if Alzheimer’s or something else is to blame for a patient’s problems.
甚至专家也很难判断，患者的问题是由阿尔茨海默病还是其他原因引起的。
Schindler said she sometimes has patients “who I am convinced have Alzheimer’s disease and I do testing and it’s negative.”
辛德勒说，她有时会遇到一些病人，“我确信他们患有阿尔茨海默病，我做了测试，但结果是阴性的。”
A limited number of doctors have carried out blood tests for Alzheimer’s in carefully controlled research settings.
在严格控制的研究环境中，只有少数医生进行了阿尔茨海默氏症的血液检测。
However, a new study of about 1,200 patients in Sweden shows they also can work in doctors’ offices.
然而，一项针对瑞典约1200名患者的新研究表明，也可以在医生办公室检测血液。
The findings suggest the blood tests may be more helpful for general care doctors.
这些发现表明，血液检测可能对普通护理医生更有帮助。
They see many more cases of people with memory problems than specialists do.
他们看到的有记忆问题的病例比专家看到的多得多。
However, general care doctors have fewer diagnostic tools.
然而，普通护理医生的诊断工具较少。
In the study, patients who visited either a general care doctor or a specialist for memory problems got an early diagnosis using traditional exams.
在这项研究中，因记忆问题而就诊的患者，无论是看普通科医生还是专科医生，都通过传统检查得到了早期诊断。
They gave blood for testing and got confirmatory spinal taps or brain scans.
他们抽血进行检测，并进行了确认性的脊髓穿刺或脑部扫描。
Blood testing is far more accurate, Lund University researchers reported recently at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia.
血液检测要准确得多，隆德大学的研究人员最近在费城举行的阿尔茨海默氏症协会国际会议上报告说。
They said that the primary care doctors’ first diagnosis was 61 percent accurate and the specialists’ first diagnosis 73 percent.
他们说，初级保健医生的初诊准确率为61%，而专家的初诊准确率为73%。
However, the blood test was 91 percent accurate, their study showed.
然而，他们的研究显示，血液检测的准确率为91%。
The Journal of the American Medical Association published the study.
《美国医学协会杂志》发表了这项研究。
Dr. John Hsiao of the National Institute on Aging said the new tests measure different biomarkers in different ways.
美国国家老龄化研究所的萧博士表示，新的测试以不同的方式测量不同的生物标志物。
Doctors and researchers should only use blood tests proven to have a greater than 90 percent accuracy rate, said Alzheimer’s Association chief science officer Maria Carrillo.
阿尔茨海默病协会首席科学官玛丽亚·卡里略表示，医生和研究人员应仅使用准确率超过90%的血液检测。
Carrillo and Hsiao agreed that the blood tests most likely to provide that accuracy measure what is called p-tau217.
卡里略和萧同意，最有可能提供这种准确性的血液测试是测量所谓的p-tau217。
Schindler helped lead an unusual direct comparison of several kinds of blood tests that came to the same finding.
辛德勒帮助领导了一项不同寻常的直接比较几种血液测试的研究，得出了相同的结论。
The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health financed the work.
美国国立卫生研究院基金会为这项工作提供了资金。
That kind of test measures a form of tau that correlates with how much plaque buildup someone has, Schindler explained.
辛德勒解释说，这种测试测量的是一种与某人斑块堆积量相关的tau蛋白形式。
A high level signals a strong likelihood the person has Alzheimer’s.
高水平意味着这个人很有可能患有阿尔茨海默病。
A low level strongly suggests Alzheimer’s is not the cause of a patient’s thinking problems. Several companies are developing p-tau217 tests.
低水平强烈表明阿尔茨海默病不是患者思维问题的原因。几家公司正在开发p-tau217测试。
In the United States, only doctors can order the blood tests from labs.
在美国，只有医生才能从实验室订购血液测试。
The Alzheimer’s Association is working on policy suggestions and several companies plan to seek FDA approval, which would clarify correct use.
阿尔茨海默病协会正在制定政策建议，几家公司计划寻求FDA批准，这将明确正确的使用方法。
For now, Carrillo said doctors should use blood testing only in people with memory problems, after checking the accuracy of the kind they order.
目前，卡里略表示，医生在检查他们所开的血液检测的准确性后，应该只对有记忆问题的人进行血液检测。
Especially for primary care physicians, “it really has great potential to help them in sorting out who to give a reassuring message and who to send on to memory specialists,” said Dr. Sebastian Palmqvist of Lund University.
隆德大学的塞巴斯蒂安-帕姆奎斯特博士说："特别是对于初级保健医生来说，它确实具有巨大的潜力，可以帮助他们分辨出哪些人需要给予安慰，哪些人需要转交给记忆专家。
Palmqvist led the Swedish study with Lund’s Dr. Oskar Hansson.
帕尔姆奎斯特与隆德的奥斯卡·汉森博士共同领导了这项瑞典研究。
I’m John Russell. And I’m Caty Weaver.
我是约翰·拉塞尔。我是凯蒂·韦弗。
