Practical utility of urinary assay in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease: AlzheimAlert™

摘要

Urinary assay (Alzheimer’s disease reaction titer [ADRT]) adds significant information in thendiagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), particularly for the nonspecialist. Clinical studies ofnADRT in series of AD and non-AD patients have found sensitivity of 89–92.3%, specificity ofn90–96.8%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 94.8–97.4% and negative predictive value (NPV)nof 78.9–91.8%. The added information from the improvements of PPV and NPV arenparticularly helpful for the nonspecialist in the community. As a laboratory assay that requires anfirst-morning noncontaminated sample, ADRT is noninvasive, convenient and safe. ADRT isnbased on reagents derived from human AD brain cDNA. The pathophysiological roles of thesengenetic fragments and reagents are still under investigation. ADRT should have a positivenimpact on primary-care AD clinical practice.