Blood Test For Insulin Resistance Might Predict Rapid Decline Among Patients With Alzheimer’s, Study Finds

HealthDay (6/23, Thompson) reports a study presented at the European Academy of Neurology meeting found that the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index “can flag early Alzheimer’s disease patients who are four times more likely to experience rapid brain decline.” Specifically, the test “assesses a person’s level of insulin resistance and can estimate their risk of developing type 2 diabetes. But the test also can help determine which people newly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s might experience a faster decline in brain function, researchers reported.” For the study, participants in cognitive decline “underwent the TyG index blood test and were followed for three years. The third of Alzheimer’s patients with the highest levels of insulin resistance had a quadrupled risk of faster cognitive decline, when compared to those with the least insulin resistance, results show.” Researchers noted that “insulin resistance did not appear to interact with a person’s genetic risk for Alzheimer’s, indicating that these are separate risk factors that might operate independently.”