alt Hacker NewsThis Alzheimer's blood test, PrecivityAD2, is based on the p-tau217 biomarker.
In one recent study, people very high p-tau217 had a 38% chance of progressing to cognitive impairment within 5 years vs 12% for those with low levels. The current tests cost about $200-300, so they're not unreasonable as a screening test. PrecivityAD2 looks to be priced around $1,400-$1,500 so at that price, this specific test likely only makes sense for people with established disease.
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We can also test for PSEN1, which is 100% accurate in determining early onset alzheimer's disease, quite a it more expensive, so unreasonable as a screening tool unfortunately.
That price difference seems like the key point. A $200 test can plausibly be used to decide who should get further workup; a $1500 test is already competing with the cost of the workup itself
epistemics asks how many different hypotheses besides p-tau217 levels were tested before arriving at the specified spread.
Seems like a no brainer for hetero/homozygous APOE4 folks.
do you have the reference for that one? I'd be interested in reading it.
That sounds pretty expensive for me for a test with that low accuracy, especially when there's not much you can do different if it comes back high vs. coming back low.