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A new blood test developed by scientists can 100 percent accurately detect early Alzheimer's disease. The test uses the body's immune system response to determine if the patient with memory problems has dementia. The new device could be used to hasten diagnosis and start early preventive treatment of the condition.

New Blood Test is Accurate, Inexpensive and Non-invasive

The new study involved more than 200 subjects where the blood test accurately found patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from those without it. Furthermore, the blood test was able to correctly identify the Alzheimer's disease progression; from early dementia to late stage types. The details of the study are published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring.

Researchers say that tore than 50 percent of patients with MCI have Alzheimer's disease, Mirror reported. However, differentiating the two is particularly hard when age and other factors are considered. The new blood test could also tell apart of other degenerative diseases including Parkinson's, breast cancer and multiple sclerosis.

Blood test to diagnose Alzheimer's on the cards - exciting early results of HRC-funded programme led by @otago team https://t.co/WK31cyzZr8

— HRC New Zealand (@HRCNewZealand) April 5, 2016

Early Alzheimer's Disease Does Not Show Symptoms

According to Dr Robert Nagele, lead researcher and author of the study, early Alzheimer's disease does not show symptoms. In fact, the signs only come after at least 10 years, Daily Mail noted. With this in mind, researchers hope that the new inexpensive, effective and non-invasive blood test can help them determine which patients need to look out for Alzheimer's disease.

The researchers plan to conduct another study on the blood test on a wider scale, Medical Xpress wrote. The authors explained that early detection of Alzheimer's disease can help extend the survival of patients. They hope that preventive treatments added with various lifestyle changes, healthy eating habits, and excellent medical care can let scientists study early stage Alzheimer's disease patients in order to find potential cure.