Professor Matthew Kiernan

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72 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 31 Jul

Professor Matthew Kiernan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Health Report · An Alzheimer's blood test is on the way. What could that mean for you? · 31 Jul 2026 podcast

But that's the standard diagnostic approach at present.

Alternatively, we could have a lumbar puncture, so you take fluid out from the spine and you look for amyloid or tau in the CSF.

And most patients would have that test done.

The importance of having that test is that dementia is sort of an overarching term and it incorporates all forms of dementia.

And maybe that didn't matter too much.

But now that we have focus therapy, so monoclonal antibody therapies that might, for instance, work through amyloid pathways, you need to have a definitive diagnosis.

So that's why it's important.

So this is a blood test that's run through a Cobas machine, and it finds a signal, an immunosignal from the blood, and then it has a range.

So it's either negative, it's positive, or it's intermediate.

And then we interpret that.

So it's about 90% to 92%, which is equivalent to the PET scanner.

But again, you raise a good point.

And this is the first test that's been approved by the FDA, and we hope that it will eventually be approved in Australia.

But I would anticipate, and I hope as a clinician, that we will have equivalent tests for alpha-synuclein, for TDP43, which is frontotemporal dementia motor neurone disease.

So we will do the same approach for these conditions.

You're right on all fronts.

Yeah, well, I think you've raised all reasonable points.

However, I would say that as a neurologist, the earlier you treat, the better.

And we've been through this journey with, for instance, multiple sclerosis, and people said, oh, don't worry, steroids won't make any difference.

It doesn't alter the course.

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