Simple Blood Test Identifies Alzheimer's Patients at Risk of Faster Decline: Study Shows

Insulin resistance, as measured by a routine triglyceride-glucose index, may help identify early Alzheimer's patients at risk of rapid cognitive decline, according to new research presented at the European Academy of Neurology Congress 2025 and soon to be published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring. The study suggests that a low-cost, widely available blood test could play a vital role in predicting disease progression and guiding early interventions.

In this study, neurologists at the University of Brescia reviewed clinical records of 315 non-diabetic patients with cognitive deficits, including 200 with biologically confirmed Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Each participant underwent triglyceride-glucose index testing to assess insulin resistance and was followed for three years to monitor cognitive changes using the Mini-Mental State Examination.

The researchers divided participants into thirds based on their triglyceride-glucose index. Among patients with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s, those in the highest triglyceride-glucose group experienced significantly faster cognitive decline—losing over 2.5 Mini Mental State Examination points per year—compared to those in the lower two-thirds. The hazard ratio for rapid decline in this group was 4.08. No similar trend was found in patients with non-Alzheimer’s forms of cognitive impairment.