Alzheimer's Blood Test Cleared for Primary Care Use
The Elecsys pTau181 test can help rule out Alzheimer's-related amyloid pathology. Earlier this year, a different blood test was approved for use in specialized care settings. Having testing available through primary care has the potential to reduce unnecessary specialist referrals and more invasive procedures.
MedPage Today reports that Roche’s Elecsys pTau181 blood test has received clearance for use in primary care settings to help rule out Alzheimer's-related amyloid pathology in patients with cognitive decline.
In a multicenter clinical study of 787 patients, the test demonstrated a negative predictive value of 93.8% and a sensitivity of 83.6%, providing a less invasive alternative to PET scans or cerebrospinal fluid analysis when the result is negative.
This article falls under Clinical/Patient Safety in the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) risk domains.
Clinical/Patient Safety
Risks associated with the delivery of care to residents, patients and other healthcare customers. Clinical risks include: failure to follow evidence based practice, medication errors, hospital acquired conditions (HAC), serious safety events (SSE), and others.