Cardiovascular Biomarkers as a Primary Care Gateway to Early Alzheimer's Disease Detection: The Case for an Integrated Screening Approach

Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects millions of Americans and represents one of the leading causes of disability and healthcare expenditure in the United States. The vast majority of patients are diagnosed at the symptomatic stage, when substantial neuronal loss has already occurred and the therapeutic window for disease-modifying treatment has closed. Recently approved disease-modifying therapies have created an urgent clinical need for pre-symptomatic patient identification. The cardiovascular risk factors most commonly managed in primary care -- hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, atrial fibrillation, and chronic heart failure -- are among the most powerful modifiable antecedents of AD pathology, operating through systemic inflammation, cerebral small vessel disease, impaired glymphatic clearance, and tau hyperphosphorylation. The biomarkers used to monitor these conditions -- C-reactive protein, cardiac troponin, NT-proBNP, and homocysteine -- reflect active neurodegeneration risk processes already measured routinely in primary care. This clinical perspective proposes a three-stage integrated neuro-cardiological screening protocol linking cardiovascular biomarker assessment to plasma P-tau217 blood testing for AD confirmation. This framework addresses the implementation gap identified in recent United States primary care literature and represents a practical step toward closing the AD diagnostic gap.