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Re: Fire Misleading post# 188566

Saturday, 04/06/2019 1:48:06 PM

Saturday, April 06, 2019 1:48:06 PM

Post# of 455332
You are applying U.S. medical practice standards to Australia...


Brain Scans Prevent Alzheimer’s Misdiagnosis and Lead to Better Treatment—But They’re Not Covered By Medicare
By Emily Woodruff | April 2nd, 2019
An under-utilized tool could help correctly diagnose and manage dementia, leading to better care, according to a new study.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that giving patients a PET scan to get more information about the state of their brains resulted in an altered diagnosis for one in three study participants with dementia or memory problems and changed managment—medications, therapy, counseling, etc.—in two-thirds of patients.

Right now, PET scans are not typically used to confirm an Alzheimer’s diagnosis because they are costly and not covered by insurance. The PET scan can identify beta-amyloid plaques, a build-up of toxic proteins in the brain that is a biomarker for Alzheimer’s. Instead, doctors rely on symptoms like memory loss, word games and family testimony to diagnose Alzheimer’s. But those methods have been proven to be unreliable and biased in the past, doling our inaccurate diagnoses.



https://www.beingpatient.com/amyloid-pet-scan/



Health & Science
PET scans show many Alzheimer’s patients may not actually have the disease
By Tara Bahrampour July 19, 2017
A significant portion of people with mild cognitive impairment or dementia who are taking medication for Alzheimer’s may not actually have the disease, according to interim results of a major study underway to see how PET scans could change the nature of Alzheimer’s diagnosis and treatment.

The findings, presented Wednesday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London, come from a four-year study launched in 2016 that is testing over 18,000 Medicare beneficiaries with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia to see if their brains contain the amyloid plaques that are one of the two hallmarks of the disease.

So far, the results have been dramatic. Among 4,000 people tested so far in the Imaging Dementia-Evidence for Amyloid Scanning (IDEAS) study, researchers from the Memory and Aging Center at the University of California at San Francisco found that just 54.3 percent of MCI patients and 70.5 percent of dementia patients had the plaques.


A positive test for amyloid does not mean someone has Alzheimer’s, though its presence precedes the disease and increases the risk of progression. But a negative test definitively means a person does not have it.

The findings could change the way doctors treat people in these hard-to-diagnose groups and save money being spent on inappropriate medication.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/brain-scans-show-many-alzheimers-patients-may-not-actually-have-the-disease/2017/07/18/52013620-6bf2-11e7-9c15-177740635e83_story.html

From Investor2014:


PET will be used as part of inclusion criteria. From https://www.australianclinicaltrials.gov.au:
Quote:
Inclusion Criteria:

- Patients aged 60 to 85 years, inclusive, with a NIA-AA diagnosis of mild cognitive
impairment (MCI) due to AD or early stage mild dementia due to AD. AD diagnosis should
be made by an appropriately qualified medical specialist and AD pathology should be
confirmed by either:

1. Historical records of amyloid CSF assessment or

2. Historical records of amyloid PET scan or

3. If neither historical records are available, then AD pathological diagnosis
confirmation should be offered at screening:

i. CSF collection or ii. Amyloid PET iii. Past medical records of MRI or CT are
optional.


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