Addenbrooke’s researchers develop Alzheimer’s test

A new mental agility quiz development by researchers from the Neurology team could help detect Alzheimer's disease more accurately than traditional tests.

The new test is designed so that patients can carry out the test themselves, potentially while sitting in a GP or hospital waiting room.

Jeremy Brown, consultant neurologist here at Addenbrooke's said the new Test Your Memory (TYM) evaluation provides more accurate results than the traditional standard mini mental-state examination, or MMSE.

The TYM evaluation detected 93% of patients with Alzheimer's in a trial involving 540 healthy people and 139 patients. This compared with 52% of patients tested with the MMSE – a test that has been used for decades to assist doctors in making a diagnosis.

The new test is also more likely to diagnose patients in the early stages of the disease – a crucial period when drug treatments are most effective. The test can also be carried out without the direct involvement by a nurse or doctor.

"Although this is a very simple test that can be done alone, it's not really to be done at home as there are all sorts of reasons why people may not perform well that are not related to Alzheimer's," said Dr Brown.

The TYM evaluations are more difficult than MMSE, requiring the patient to recall a longer sentence and use language in different ways. It also includes two visuospatial tasks, which are believed to be important for differentiating Alzheimer's from other memory problems.

Researchers hope to be able to make the test available for GPs who want it to download shortly.

"We are really pleased to have developed something which may improve early diagnosis as there are in many cases effective action that can be taken. In particular we think it will be much easier to use with people who do not have English as a first language."