00:02Teresa Flavin first noticed signs of memory loss when she was in her 40s.
00:07Everything was falling apart, birthdays were being forgotten, all the normal routine things.
00:14She was referred to mental health services before being diagnosed with dementia years later.
00:19The diagnosis process is so exhausting and so demoralising.
00:24This is the Roche Diagnostics Analyzer.
00:26A less arduous process may soon be available after the TGA approved a new blood test
00:32which can identify Alzheimer's disease at least 20 years before symptoms appear.
00:37This is a simple blood test that can be organised at a pathology centre.
00:41It identifies tau in the blood and that's the protein that affects the brain causing Alzheimer's disease.
00:48Results can be determined in the lab in as little as 18 minutes.
00:51Currently the best way to detect Alzheimer's is through an expensive and invasive brain scan or spinal fluid sample.
00:59It's the earlier diagnosis that's going to have the biggest impact on treating and eventually curing and preventing Alzheimer's disease.
01:08Dementia is now the leading cause of death in Australia affecting more than 400,000 people.
01:14Around two thirds of those have Alzheimer's disease.
01:16This is a tragedy that can hit so many families and this breakthrough today is really important.
01:25This diagnostic holds out the prospect of a quicker answer to the question about what's happening with your loved one.
01:32And that's why I really describe this as the Holy Grail.
01:35The test is now part of clinical trials with blood samples to be analysed here in the coming weeks.
01:41The hope is that the test will ultimately be available to the general public and be subsidised under Medicare.
01:48There is no cure for dementia but Teresa Flava knows an early diagnosis can be life-changing.
01:54There is no cure for care, after年- surgeon but there is no cure for nudging.
01:55There also is no cure forícia about cancer.
01:58There is no cure.
01:59You
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