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CSF tau protein and β ‐amyloid (1–42) in Alzheimer's disease diagnosis: discrimination from normal ageing and other dementias in the Greek population
Author(s) -
Kapaki E.,
Paraskevas G. P.,
Zalonis I.,
Zournas C.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
european journal of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.881
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1468-1331
pISSN - 1351-5101
DOI - 10.1046/j.1468-1331.2003.00562.x
Subject(s) - medicine , dementia , ageing , alzheimer's disease , tau protein , vascular dementia , cerebrospinal fluid , disease , pathology
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of tau protein and amyloid β (1–42) peptide (A β 42) have been suggested as possible diagnostic markers of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In order to evaluate their diagnostic potential in clinical practice, we measured tau and A β 42 levels in the CSF of 49 AD patients, 15 patients with non‐AD neurodegenerative dementias (NAND), six patients with vascular dementia (VD) and 49 elderly controls. All the subjects were of Greek origin. A marked increase in tau, a decrease in A β 42 and a marked increase in the tau/A β 42 ratio was noted in AD. A β 42 alone had a specificity of 80% and a sensitivity of 82% in differentiating AD from normal ageing, whilst the corresponding values for differentiating AD from NAND or VD were 80 and 71, or 67 and 82%, respectively. Tau was better in differentiating AD, from normal ageing (specificity 96%, sensitivity 88%), NAND (specificity 93%, sensitivity 71%) and VD (specificity 83%, sensitivity 94%). The tau/A β 42 ratio achieved values comparable or even better than tau for differentiating AD from normal ageing (specificity 86%, sensitivity 96%) and VD (specificity 83%, sensitivity 90%) and definitely better than any of the candidate markers alone, for differentiating AD from NAND (specificity 100%, sensitivity 71%). Thus, the combined use of CSF tau and A β 42 in the form of the tau/A β 42 ratio is a simple, safe and useful adjuvant to clinical criteria for dementia diagnosis.