The Future of Healthcare
Neurological Genetic Testing
If you or a loved one has a neurological degenerative disease, such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, or Parkinson’s, it’s important to know if it is hereditary. With this knowledge, a doctor can schedule a long-term preventative health care plan to improve quality of life. Take the first step with Clear Bridge Biomedics’ Neurological Genetic Test.
Neurological GENETIC TESTING
By using a genetic test for neurological disease, doctors can identify the root cause of a patient’s neurological condition. The test also helps doctors determine individual relatives who are most at risk for developing the same condition.
PREVENT Neurological DISEASE
If your family has a history of neurological disease, there are steps you can take to prevent developing it yourself. A healthy diet, strong social connections, not smoking, and getting regular neurological screens are all great preventive measures to help keep the mind healthy.
Neurological GENETIC CONDITIONS
Many neurological conditions can be genetic. The Clear Bridge Biomedics Neurological panel test screens your genetic material for Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s diseases. This can inform treatment of these diseases and if cascade genetic testing needs to be performed on relevant family members.
Understanding your results
Genetic test results are complicated documents. Often, it takes an expert in the field of genetic counseling to help patients interpret the results and decide on next steps.
Take the first step to Neurological Genetic Testing!
WHAT TYPE OF PATIENTS SHOULD BE TESTED?
•Any patient that is experiencing a neurological disease, such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, or Parkinson’s.
•Any patient whose relatives have had a neurological disease, particularly multiple relatives.
•Any patient who has experienced a sudden decline in mental faculties.
•Any patient with unexplained memory loss.
•Any patient with abnormal changes in mood or personality not linked to another illness.
WHAT DOES THE DOCTOR SAY?
Is Parkinson disease (PD) hereditary? Is it transmitted genetically? The answer to these questions is yes; numerous genes have been identified. PD is the second most common cause of dementia. At the time of this writing, 23 loci and 19 genes have been identified that cause and contribute to PD symptoms. Rest assured that a positive family history does NOT automatically condemn your final days. The first important distinction in these genes (or alleles) is to determine if the gene is autosomal dominant (AD) or autosomal recessive (AR). AD indicates that you carry a high risk of developing Parkinson’s if one of your parents has the disease. AR means that you do have a slight chance of potentially carrying the gene, but may not express (develop) Parkinsonian symptoms. Scientists have discovered some associations with genes, that some may cause more severe symptoms or younger age to onset, however, a recent meta-analysis shows no significant difference between risk alleles for age at onset. Men tend to be at higher risk, with currently 0.3% of the world’s population having Parkinson disease 40 years of age and older. Genetic testing is currently available for the following genes: SNCA, PARK2, PINK1, PARK7, PARK8. -Dr. Danielle Kelvas, MD
Trigger conditions for Genetic Testing?
Alzheimer’s Disease
Dementia
Parkinson’s Disease
Muscular Dystrophy
If I test Positive, will I get the Disease?
Not necessarily, just that you are at a higher risk for developing a neurological condition. There can be several reasons someone can develop a neurological disease like Alzheimer’s. Some reasons are environmental, like someone’s cognitive stimulation late in life or nutrition health. Mutated genetics only increases risk for those factors, as well as gives a chance that the person develops the neurological without much environmental prompting. As an example, the average person might have a 10% chance to develop Alzheimer’s when experiencing some level of environmental pressure. A person whose genes are mutated might have a 60% chance to cause the person to develop the disease under the same exact circumstances. In addition, someone with an abnormal genetic makeup might develop Alzheimer’s disease without any environmental factors. This is why knowing what your genes say about your body is so important!
How do I know what my results are?
You will have your results returned to you when the test is concluded at Clear Bridge Biomedics, but you might not know what to do with them. Most experts recommend contacting a genetic counselor before, during, and after your decision to take a genetic test for several reasons. 1) while there are no inherent physical risks to genetic tests, you may not actually want to know the results. The choice to know is sometimes a difficult one and should be considered thoroughly. 2) Genetic information is very complicated and not easily understood by the average person looking at a results spreadsheet. Genetic counselors help everyday people interpret the results in helpful and relevant ways, leading to informed medical decisions.
