Dr. Brent Beasley on the Alzheimer’s Blood Test That Gave Him a Timely Diagnosis
Dr. Brent Beasley, our Episode 1 guest, has shared a new chapter of his story in Solving Alzheimer’s. As a retired internal medicine physician living in Kansas City, Missouri, Brent knows Alzheimer’s care from both sides of the exam table. In his article, he writes about the blood test that started his Alzheimer’s diagnosis and why the newer tests give families more reason to hope and act now.
When Brent’s symptoms appeared in 2022, he and his wife went to a neurologist friend. His friend ordered a test neurologists were “just trying out”: p-tau217, the first blood-based biomarker that could point to Alzheimer’s. It came back positive.
Next came an amyloid PET scan and a spinal tap at the University of Kansas Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. After eight months of anti-amyloid therapy, Brent says the fog he’d felt day in and day out lifted and that he now feels “a heap better.”
What New FDA-Cleared Tests Mean for Early Alzheimer’s Diagnoses
Brent’s story shows why early testing matters: The sooner a patient receives a diagnosis, the sooner treatment can begin. Today, two new FDA-cleared blood tests go even further. They’re better at catching true positives and screening out negatives, which helps doctors:
- Rule out Alzheimer’s and avoid over-treatment
- Save costly PET scans for the patients who need them
- Reach more people early enough for FDA-approved anti-amyloid medications
Future patients may never need the spinal tap or PET scan Brent went through.
“There is more hope for us with Alzheimer’s now than ever. Don’t be afraid.”
His advice? If you’ve noticed memory changes in yourself or someone you love, talk to your doctor. Bring his article with you, because some busy primary care doctors may not know about the latest advances yet.
Read the full original story here.
Hear more of Brent’s story in Episode 1 of Ahead of Alzheimer’s.