Cerebrospinal fluid amyloid beta42/phosphorylated tau ratio discriminates between Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.
BACKGROUND
The differentiation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) from vascular dementia (VaD) is hampered by clinical diagnostic criteria with disappointing sensitivity and specificity. The objective of this study was to investigate whether cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of total tau protein (t-tau), amyloid beta42 protein (Abeta42), and tau phosphorylated at threonine 181 (p-tau181) are useful biomarkers to distinguish AD patients from VaD patients.


METHODS
We measured CSF levels of p-tau181, Abeta42, and t-tau in 86 patients with a clinical diagnosis of AD or VaD and in 30 control participants.


RESULTS
Optimal differentiation between AD and VaD was achieved by using the ratio of the CSF levels of Abeta42 and p-tau181 (Q Abeta42/p-tau) with sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values all > or = 85%.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results support further efforts to prospectively validate the use of Q Abeta42/p-tau as a biomarker to discriminate between AD and VaD.
de Jong
Daniëlle
D
Department of Neurology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Jansen
René W M M
RW
Kremer
Berry P H
BP
Verbeek
Marcel M
MM
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010766:Phosphorylation; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*
D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D015415:Biomarkers; D016875:tau Proteins