Newswise — A committee assembled by the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association has proposed a new way to define Alzheimer’s disease. Toppling the long-standing syndromic definition, scientists now embrace a biologically based concept to diagnose the disease in living people. Using biochemical tests and scans to detect pathologic proteins in the brain, they separate the diagnosis from symptoms. The proposal marks a seismic shift away from distinct, clinically defined entities and toward a continuous disease process defined by its underlying pathophysiology. It is for research use only.
Alzforum outlines the history behind this development, the rationale for the change, and the consequences for those studying the disease or running clinical trials. We sought the expertise of more than a half-dozen researchers in the field who weighed in with insightful comments on the proposal.
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Founded in 1996, Alzforum is a news and information resource website dedicated to helping researchers accelerate discovery and advance development of diagnostics and treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.
Our site expands the traditional mode of scientific communication by reporting the latest scientific findings and industry news with insightful analysis that puts breaking news into context. We advance research by developing open-access databases of curated, highly specific scientific content to visualize and facilitate the exploration of complex data. Alzforum is a platform to disseminate the evolving knowledge around basic, translational, and clinical research in the field of AD.
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