
Two accepted techniques are used to demonstrate a patient has AD: 1) Biomedical imaging modalities illustrate brain abnormalities 2) Abnormalities detected by drawing a CSF sample from the spinal cord. Researchers have used a 3 year clinical study to develop a new methodology to detect AD in older patients by drawing regular blood samples from them. Although the data is preliminary, skeptics from leading universities interested in engineering techniques to detect AD before its clinical onset are hopeful this innovation will be further developed.