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Last issue the Senior Services Report shared a story on a groundbreaking method of diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease. The new method, which claims a 100 percent accuracy rate, analyzes the levels of certain proteins in a person’s spinal fluid and can detect an “Alzheimer’s signature” years before the onset of symptoms. Is this method ready for wide application? Should it be? Our readers responded.

I think the test should be available as soon as the accuracy can be validated. My father died of Alzheimer’s disease as well as all of his eight sibling. I would like to know as soon as possible whether I am predicted to be affected by this disease. My life choices may be effected by the information and of course my commitment to preventative measures would be affected. My only concern is that this information may affect my eligibility to medical care/insurance so confidentiality would be key.

-Arlene Cramer APRN-FNP, AHPCN

If you are a midlife sibling, perhaps you have a brother or sister to whom you hardly speak. Maybe you saw that sibling at this summer’s family reunion and largely ignored him or her or made do with chitchat as you seethed inside. If you fit this description, you are in the same lurching boat as uncounted baby boomer siblings all over the world. That wound from childhood may still ache enough to keep you on the furrowed path your family followed when you were young.

Now, however, you and adult siblings, nearing or at retirement age, may need to come together again to be part of a niece or nephew’s wedding or christening, help plan a parent’s anniversary dinner or oversee the increasing care of elderly family members.

At family rituals like summer weddings adult siblings often are brought back together. The family stage is set up once more, but now the warring characters may be brothers or sisters who have their own families and lives. If the sibling breach has not been cauterized and is still stiffened like a coiled wound, the wedding or family ceremony can turn into high drama ignited by emotional flashbacks from childhood wreaking havoc again.

In a groundbreaking new study, researchers have developed a system for predicting the onset of Alzheimer’s disease that shows a 100 percent rate of accuracy. The small study, involving roughly 400 people, measured the levels of three proteins associated with Alzheimer’s and found that the disease is a near certainty for patients who present an “Alzheimer’s disease signature.”

The study, appearing in the August issue of the Archives of Neurology, adds to the growing body of evidence that says that Alzheimer’s begins years before its first symptoms appear. The ability to recognize the disease early on can mean more targeted approaches and more success with preventive treatments.

In the current research, scientists looked at three proteins in a person’s spinal fluid—total tau protein, phosphorylated tau and amyloid protein, according to reports. The study assessed roughly 100 people with Alzheimer’s, 200 with a more moderate form of cognitive impairment, and about 115 people with no overt signs of dementia. Based on the levels of the three proteins, researchers then identified a so-called disease signature, which was present in nine of 10 Alzheimer’s patients. The disease signature consists of low amyloid levels and high phosphorylated tau levels.