Alzheimer's Disease CSF Biomarkers: Clinical Indications and Rational Use

Overview

Journal Acta Neurol Belg

Publisher Springer

Specialty Neurology

Date 2017 Jul 29

PMID 28752420

Citations 55

Authors

Ellis Niemantsverdriet

Sara Valckx

Maria Bjerke

Sebastiaan Engelborghs

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

This review focusses on the validation and standardization of Alzheimer's disease (AD) cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers, as well as on the current clinical indications and rational use of CSF biomarkers in daily clinical practice. The validated AD CSF biomarkers, Aβ, T-tau, and P-tau, have an added value in the (differential) diagnosis of AD and related disorders, including mixed pathologies, atypical presentations, and in case of ambiguous clinical dementia diagnosis. CSF biomarkers should not be routinely used in the diagnostic work-up of dementia and cannot be used to diagnose non-AD dementias. In cognitively healthy subjects, CSF biomarkers can only be applied for research purposes, e.g., to identify pre-clinical AD in the context of clinical trials with potentially disease-modifying drugs. Therefore, biomarker-based early diagnosis of AD offers great opportunities for preventive treatment development in the near future.

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