BATON ROUGE — According to the CDC, more than six million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

Early diagnosis might help delay the onset of symptoms, and a new study shows a blood test can help with early detection.

"There have been so many exciting developments when it comes to the world of Alzheimer's and this is another one,” Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon at Grady Memorial Hospital, said.

Gupta says the two-part blood test can measure how much amyloid you likely have in your brain. Amyloid is a protein that clumps together and later becomes plaque in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

"It's not an Alzheimer's test per se...either you have it or you don't. But it's another tool that doctors are likely to start using as part of a more complete evaluation,” Gupta said.

A new study found this combined blood test has a 90% accuracy rate in determining whether memory loss is due to Alzheimer's. In comparison, neurologists and other memory specialists correctly diagnosed the disease in 73% of cases and primary care doctors had even less success, with a 61% accuracy rate.

"There's also these new medications out there with these new blood tests, you might be able to follow along how well those medications are working, take the medication. Did the amyloid score start to improve as a result of that? You can do that in conjunction with actually looking at someone's real-life functioning,” Gupta said.