When the FDA recently approved the Lumipulse blood test to help with diagnose of Alzheimer’s Disease, there was the usual roundup of hyperbole which can be harmful to public understanding.
Good piece. Mission creep is quite common in the press and is difficult for lay readers to recognize this. Anxious patients regularly query me worried that the heartburn medicines I prescribed for them may cause dementia and other maladies, based on misleading reportage. With regard to a test for Alzheimer's disease, assuming a positive result is true, might there be a permanent erosion in one's quality of life knowing that a terrible diagnosis that has no effective treatment is expected?
Thank you for the insightful coverage of this misunderstood technological advance. As a primary care physician who cares for a senior population I will not order this test. I have a concern about the setting in which the test should be performed. In many healthcare markets it is extremely difficult for patients with cognitive impairment to be seen in a specialized setting. Most neurologists and memory care centers will not even see a patient until the primary care clinician has performed a laundry list of specialized blood tests and imaging. Clinical evaluation and acumen be d*mned. What will inevitably happen is that the Lumipulse test will be indiscriminately ordered in primary care settings.
Good piece. Mission creep is quite common in the press and is difficult for lay readers to recognize this. Anxious patients regularly query me worried that the heartburn medicines I prescribed for them may cause dementia and other maladies, based on misleading reportage. With regard to a test for Alzheimer's disease, assuming a positive result is true, might there be a permanent erosion in one's quality of life knowing that a terrible diagnosis that has no effective treatment is expected?
Thank you for the insightful coverage of this misunderstood technological advance. As a primary care physician who cares for a senior population I will not order this test. I have a concern about the setting in which the test should be performed. In many healthcare markets it is extremely difficult for patients with cognitive impairment to be seen in a specialized setting. Most neurologists and memory care centers will not even see a patient until the primary care clinician has performed a laundry list of specialized blood tests and imaging. Clinical evaluation and acumen be d*mned. What will inevitably happen is that the Lumipulse test will be indiscriminately ordered in primary care settings.
Piercing analysis, Gary, as usual. Thanks for this!