[Twotone]

Don’t you need to sample brain tissue for that? :-)

[Vermont Lt]

What they should do is a public or at least observed Montreal Diagnostic battery.

He would score a little bit higher than a rhubarb.

[libertylover]

Don’t you need to sample brain tissue for that? :-)

I think so as there's no blood sample that can be tested.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Slice away. He ain’t using his right now...

[Dad was my hero]

In blood work they can look for a genetic marker for it - though that doesn’t mean you have it or will get it but your likelihood increases if you have that marker. My mother-in-law had it and now Mrs. Dad has it and is now in the severe stage.
Also it can be detected with a PET scan and a radio-isotope marker. It attaches to the plaques and they “light up”. Also found for Mrs. Dad.

[Emmett McCarthy]

Yes, it can only be definitively determined basically by an autopsy. Joe may not be quite ready for that yet.