Whatever the details, they were diagnosing people and giving them "Alzheimers drugs" until they saw lack of amyloid-beta. To me it sounds like the "definitive e

Whatever the details, they were diagnosing people and giving them "Alzheimers drugs" until they saw lack of amyloid-beta. To me it sounds like the "definitive evidence" is "telltale amyloid deposits": “If someone had a putative diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, they might be on an Alzheimer’s drug like Aricept or Namenda,” said James Hendrix, the Alzheimer Association’s director of global science initiatives who co-presented the findings. “What if they had a PET scan and it showed that they didn’t have amyloid in their brain? Their physician would take them off that drug and look for something else.” For decades, diagnosing Alzheimer’s has been a guessing game, based on looking at a person’s symptoms rather than testing for definitive evidence of the brain disorder. A firm diagnosis was not possible until an autopsy was performed. Now, a spinal tap or PET scan can detect the telltale amyloid deposits, and researchers are trying to develop a simple blood test that would do so. PET imaging can quantify the amount of amyloid and also show where it is in a person’s brain."