Spinal-fluid test found to predict Alzheimer's

The New York Times, August 10, 2010

Researchers report that a spinal fluid test can be 100% accurate in identifying patients with significant memory loss who are on their way to developing Alzheimer’s disease. Although there has been increasing evidence of the value of this and other tests in finding signs of Alzheimer’s, the study, which will appear Tuesday in the Archives of Neurology, shows how accurate they can be. The new result is one of a number of remarkable recent findings about Alzheimer’s. After decades when nothing much seemed to be happening, when this progressive brain disease seemed untreatable and when its diagnosis could be confirmed only at autopsy, the field has suddenly woken up.