We’re proud to be the sole NSW provider of a new accred­it­ed cere­brospinal flu­id (CSF) test for diag­no­sis of Alzheimer’s dis­ease, a spe­cif­ic type of demen­tia char­ac­ter­ized by pro­gres­sive mem­o­ry loss and cog­ni­tive decline.

Cere­brospinal flu­id (CSF) bio­mark­ers are cur­rent­ly the only clin­i­cal­ly val­i­dat­ed bioflu­id diag­nos­tic test for Alzheimer’s Dis­ease avail­able in Aus­tralia. Until now, spec­i­mens from NSW had to be sent away to a pri­vate insti­tute in Vic­to­ria for testing.

With demen­tia cas­es set to dou­ble across Aus­tralia by 2058 and new treat­ments for Alzheimer’s under devel­op­ment, demand for diag­noses is expect­ed to soar.

Our Con­cord Hos­pi­tal Diag­nos­tic Pathol­o­gy Unit has posi­tioned itself ahead of the game to meet this need, com­mis­sion­ing this new NATA-accred­it­ed CSF test that is fast, accu­rate and affordable.

Dr Mar­garet Janu, NSW Health Pathology’s Chem­i­cal Pathol­o­gy Clin­i­cal Stream Lead, said patients and refer­ring clin­i­cians can expect results with­in 1 busi­ness day of receipt of specimens.

But the real ben­e­fit of the CSF test is ear­li­er detec­tion, which Alzheimer’s experts agree is the key to bet­ter man­age­ment of the con­di­tion and the suc­cess of even­tu­al treatments.

“The test detects the Alzheimer bio­mark­ers Beta Amy­loid and Tau in patients at an ear­li­er stage of dis­ease pro­gres­sion. It has up to 90 per­cent sen­si­tiv­i­ty and speci­fici­ty,” Dr Janu said.

“Patients will have eas­i­er and more afford­able access to a test that can dis­tin­guish with a high degree of prob­a­bil­i­ty if they have Alzheimer’s or not.

“If new Alzheimer’s drugs become avail­able, patients will need an evi­dence-based diag­no­sis to access treat­ment. At present, diag­nos­tic bio­mark­ers are lim­it­ed to the CSF test which costs $350, and amy­loid PET scans which can cost sev­er­al thou­sand dollars.

“The oth­er dis­ad­van­tage of PET scans is that by the time enough amy­loid plaque has accrued in the brain to be detect­ed, the neu­rode­gen­er­a­tion is such that were treat­ment to be avail­able, it may pos­si­bly come too late.”

NSW Health Pathology’s $29 mil­lion invest­ment in the roll­out of new chem­i­cal pathol­o­gy analy­sers came at exact­ly the right time for the Con­cord team.

“We were able to devel­op the new test because the test is only avail­able on the Roche analyser. The test is TGA-approved and mea­sures three pro­teins improv­ing diag­nos­tic accu­ra­cy,” Dr Janu said.

“We’re at the cut­ting edge. It’s anoth­er string in our bow in terms of our instru­men­ta­tion and we have the exper­tise among our Chem­i­cal Pathol­o­gists to set up these new tests and be ready.”

The com­pre­hen­sive and ter­tiary lev­el aged care ser­vice and spe­cial­ized cog­ni­tive and mem­o­ry clin­ics, togeth­er with our expe­ri­enced neu­rol­o­gists at Con­cord Hos­pi­tal, allow the lab­o­ra­to­ry and clin­i­cians to work very close­ly togeth­er to pro­vide clin­i­cal inter­pre­ta­tion and advice to our referees.

The test will be avail­able for all NSW pub­lic hos­pi­tal patients and will also take pri­vate refer­rals from geri­a­tri­cians and oth­er spe­cial­ists. At the moment there is no Medicare rebate for the test, but this is antic­i­pat­ed in the future.

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