u/sarahwithanh01

Hi all! My mom is 72 and has been showing signs of cognitive decline since at least 2020. It seemed to be a slow burn, until suddenly it wasn’t. Due to this, I insisted on attending her physical with her and she failed the basic cognitive testing they do during that. Her GP put in orders for basic blood work (including b12 and thyroid) and a CT scan of her brain - all normal. We were also referred to a neurologist. Neuro recommended the newer blood test for Alzheimer’s and if that was positive, a petscan. He also wanted her to do a brain MRI and meet with memory care for more thorough cognitive testing (1 hour one as it was really obvious she would not be capable of the 4 hour one). He gave her the MoCA at the appointment and she rc’d a 15 out of 30. I got her blood test results back late last night and her amyloid PET positivity result was .997 and the tau protein 217 score was 1.27. and the beta 42/20 score is .12.

From everything I read, this is more than enough to diagnose her with moderate stage Alzheimer’s. Is the pet/mri/additional cognitive test still necessary? While we have not told her the results of the blood test yet, she has since the appointment stated nothing is wrong with her and has belligerently stated that she will not be doing any more testing. We obviously will still try and push her to have the tests, but just wanted to confirm the necessity and importance of them at this stage in the game.

Thank you!!