By Seekriti Saha
More than 8.8 million Indian who are aged 60 and above have dementia with Alzheimer’s constituting for most of cases, the experts said on Sunday,18th January,2025, when Mahajan Imaging & Labs launched an integrated blood marker test led by AI to detect Alzheimer, early and accurately.
In India the number of people living with dementia is expected double over the decade which marks the growing need for early detection tools and required care planning.
“Early and accurate diagnosis is the cornerstone of effective Alzheimer’s care,” said Dr VS Mehta, Padma Shri awardee and Chairman Emeritus-Neurosciences, Paras Health, Gurgaon and former Head of Neurosurgery and Chief of Neurosciences at AIIMS, New Delhi.
He spoke about it at the launch of integrated blood biomarker AI driven test by Mahajan Imaging and Labs. The test is supported by a systematic MRI and PET imaging pathway and is offered under the Dementia detection program
The new test comprising of pTAU /AB1 -42(B for Beta symbol) blood biomarker test that is CDSCO and USFDA certified allows the diagnosis of Alzheimer relevant changes in human biology much earlier acute cognitive symptoms become apparent. It highlights the gravity on biology first diagnosis rather than symptom led detection in Indian clinical practice.
Speaking at the symposium titled “Integrating Next-Generation Alzheimer’s Blood Biomarkers with PET Brain Imaging: A New Paradigm in Early and Accurate Diagnosis”, Dr Sumit Singh, Chief of Neurology, Artemis Hospital, said Alzheimer’s disease is becoming a major public health challenge in India, especially as the population ages.
Moreover, the Director of Nuclear Medicine and PET of Mahjan Labs, Dr. Ritu Verma told that although blood biomarkers are vital primary detectors, MRI scan imagings of brain play a crucial role in examining structure related changes in memory regions of brain excluding other causes of psychological symptoms such as tumours, stroke, or pressure related anomalies.