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Using Alzheimer's disease blood tests to accelerate clinical trial enrollment
Schindler SE, Li Y, Li M, Despotis A, Park E, Vittert L, Hamilton BH, Womack KB et al.. Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 2022-08-07
Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis
Introduction Screening potential participants in Alzheimer's disease (AD) clinical trials with amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) is often time consuming and expensive. Methods A web-based application was developed to model the time and financial cost of screening for AD clinical trials. Four screening approaches were compared; three approaches included an AD blood test at different stages of the screening process. Results The traditional screening approach using only amyloid PET was the most time consuming and expensive. Incorporating an AD blood test at any point in the screening process decreased both the time and financial cost of trial enrollment. Improvements in AD blood test accuracy over currently available tests only marginally increased savings. Use of a high specificity cut-off may improve the feasibility of screening with only an AD blood test. Discussion Incorporating AD blood tests into screening for AD clinical trials may reduce the time and financial cost of enrollment. Highlights The time and cost of enrolling participants in Alzheimer's disease (AD) clinical trials were modeled. A web-based application was developed to enable evaluation of key parameters. AD blood tests may decrease the time and financial cost of clinical trial enrollment. Improvements in AD blood test accuracy only marginally increased savings. Use of a high specificity cut-off may enable screening with only an AD blood test.
Key findings
- Results The traditional screening approach using only amyloid PET was the most time consuming and expensive.
Why it matters
A modeling study found that adding an Alzheimer's blood test at any point in screening for clinical trials reduced the time and financial cost of enrollment compared with using amyloid PET alone. This is about making trials faster and cheaper to run, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
New to this subject? Start with our plain-English guide: Blood tests & biomarkers →
Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 43/100
Published in a leading specialty journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 9 / 10 | Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association) |
| Journal's citation record | 2 / 4 | Alzheimer s & Dementia: journal h-index 228 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 3 / 5 | 2023 — within 6 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 3 / 7 | Cited 37 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 2 / 5 | 7.4 citations a year over 5 year(s) since 2023 |
| Impact for its field and year | 3 / 6 | Cited 4.7× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 2 / 6 | Cited by 3 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 2 / 4 | Cited 30 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 1 / 4 | Last-listed author Mahendra R. Gupta: h-index 14 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 2 / 3 | Washington University in St. Louis: institution h-index 1,962 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 1 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 2 institution(s) in 1 country |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 35934777) |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Total | 43 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
Read the original
Full text: free to read — PubMed Central lists this copy as free to read: the link above (checked 10 Oct 2026).
Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Schindler, S. E., Li, Y., Li, M., Despotis, A., Park, E., Vittert, L., et al. (2023). Using Alzheimer's disease blood tests to accelerate clinical trial enrollment. Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12754
Vancouver
Schindler SE, Li Y, Li M, Despotis A, Park E, Vittert L, et al. Using Alzheimer's disease blood tests to accelerate clinical trial enrollment. Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association. 2023. doi:10.1002/alz.12754. PMID: 35934777.
BibTeX
@article{schindler2023-35934777,
author = {Schindler, S. E. and Li, Y. and Li, M. and Despotis, A. and Park, E. and Vittert, L. and Hamilton, B. H. and Womack, K. B. and others},
title = {{Using Alzheimer's disease blood tests to accelerate clinical trial enrollment}},
journal = {Alzheimer's \& dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association},
year = {2023},
doi = {10.1002/alz.12754},
pmid = {35934777},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12754}
}
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