title: Combined biomarkers for early Alzheimer disease diagnosis.
abstract: Few public health problems have captured the attention of the biomedical and lay communities alike as has Alzheimer Disease (AD). Several questions remain still open in disease management, as the necessity to delineate disease process from "normal ageing". In the last few years, Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) has received significant attention, thus it represents the major risk factor for AD. Not all people diagnosed as having MCI, however, will develop AD, hence there is a need to reliably predict progression. To this aim, different biomarkers have been proposed with the attempt to identify MCI people who already have pre-clinical AD. Neuropsychological assessment, peripheral and CSF biomarkers as well as neuroimaging findings (both structural and functional) have reported variable accuracy values, but better results have been obtained by combined biomarker approach. In this review, we summarise the most recent findings on combined biomarkers and their usefulness in clinical practice for the early and preclinical diagnosis of AD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, and Centre for Ageing Brain and Neurodegenerative Disorders, University of Brescia, Italy. borroni@med.unibs.it
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Borroni
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Premi
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Luca
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Padovani
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000097:blood; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D020543:Proteome / Q000032:analysis; D000685:Serum Amyloid A Protein / Q000032:analysis*; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D015415:Biomarkers; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D020543:Proteome; D000685:Serum Amyloid A Protein; C078592:amyloid beta-protein (1-40); C075222:amyloid beta-protein (1-42); D016875:tau Proteins; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18