Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease in the Era of Disease-Modifying Treatments
George P. Paraskevas, Elisabeth Kapaki
Abstract
Correct in vivo diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) helps to avoid administration of disease-modifying treatments in non-AD patients, and allows the possible use of such treatments in clinically atypical AD patients. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers offer a tool for AD diagnosis. A reduction in CSF β-amyloid (marker of amyloid plaque burden), although compatible with Alzheimer's pathological change, may also be observed in other dementing disorders, including vascular cognitive disorders due to subcortical small-vessel disease, dementia with Lewy bodies and normal-pressure hydrocephalus. Thus, for the diagnosis of AD, an abnormal result of CSF β-amyloid may not be sufficient, and an increase in phospho-tau (marker of tangle pathology) is also required in order to confirm AD diagnosis in patients with a typical amnestic presentation and reveal underlying AD in patients with atypical or mixed and diagnostically confusing clinical presentations.