Tag: Blood Testing

Objective Blood Alcohol Measures Confirm the Limitations of Questionnaires and Offer Increased Clinical Opportunities for Treating Dangerous Drinking

sarah JonasResearch Results

Patients in the Emergency Room (ER) should be blood-tested for hazardous drinking rather than evaluated by questionnaires alone, according to a new study comparing alcohol use screening methods. A sizeable minority of patients attend the ER for alcohol-related reasons (12–15% in the UK). That proportion is growing, a US study has found. The ER offers valuable opportunities to identify hazardous drinking and intervene with treatments that can help patients reduce their alcohol use. This requires efficiently and reliably screening ER patients for risky consumption. Validated methods include the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) — and its shorter version, AUDIT-C —which are among the most frequently used screening questionnaires. Another, the Timeline Followback Questionnaire (TLFB), is a retrospective self-administered survey estimating daily alcohol consumption over a specific prior period. In contrast, phosphatidylethanol (PEth), a metabolite of ethanol, is a direct and

New blood test can detect ‘toxic’ protein years before Alzheimer’s symptoms emerge, study shows

sarah JonasResearch Results

Researchers can detect small “toxic” aggregates of a particular protein in the blood of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and in individuals who showed no signs of cognitive impairment at the time the blood sample was taken, but who developed it at a later date.