November marks both National Caregivers and Alzheimer’s Awareness months, recognizing those with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and their families and caregivers who play a significant role caring for people with this progressive brain disease.
SYNAPS Dx (SDx) honors those experiencing AD and the people who care for them not only during November, but also throughout the entire year.
In the United States, over 11 million people provide unpaid care for those with AD or other dementias. Overall, these caregivers provided over 16 billion hours of care in 2021, valued at 272 billion.
Over 80% of care for older Americans is provided by family, friends and other unpaid caregivers. Nearly half of this care is for people with AD or another type of dementia.
Experts predict that the number of Americans living with AD could rise from 6 million to 13 million by 2050. Given the complexity of this disease, getting an accurate diagnosis is critical for ensuring that people get the right treatment as soon as possible.
The SDx team recognizes that clinicians need better tools to identify AD in people recently diagnosed with dementia, especially in early disease when patients and caregivers have the most options for treatment and ability to slow disease progression. The DISCERNTM test supports a clinician’s definitive diagnosis of AD versus other forms of dementia, even in people recently diagnosed with dementia. Without an accurate diagnosis, it is challenging to administer treatment protocols and help families plan for the care of a loved one.
DISCERN has over 95% sensitivity and specificity and combines three independently accurate biomarkers:
- Morphometric Imaging to measure fibroblasts’ ability to form networks
- Protein Kinase C ε to measure synaptic growth
- AD-Index to measure phosphorylation of Erk1 and Erk2 in response to bradykinin.
Read more about the science behind the test, here.