Evaluation of cerebrospinal fluid tau/beta-amyloid(42) ratio as diagnostic markers for Alzheimer disease.
BACKGROUND
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia. Currently, no definitive diagnostic test for AD exists. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of amyloid beta (Abeta1-42) peptides and total tau proteins (T-tau) may serve as biomarkers for AD.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to investigate the usefulness of CSF Abeta1-42 and T-tau analyses in the diagnosis of AD with Tunisians.


METHODS
We focused on three groups originating from Central Tunisian that matched in age (range 48-85): healthy controls (n = 53), AD patients (n = 93) and non-Alzheimer (nAD) dementia (n = 35) patients. Abeta1-42 and T-tau levels were measured in CSF by sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.


RESULTS
The ratio of T-tau/Abeta1-42 at baseline yielded a sensitivity of 85.3% for detection of AD and the specificity was 84.8% to differentiate controls and nAD dementia.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings confirm the use of T-tau/Abeta1-42 ratio in the discrimination of AD patients from all other patients.
Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine of Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia. dalifms@yahoo.fr
Mohamed Ali
MA
Smach
Bassem
B
Charfeddine
Leila
L
Ben Othman
Turkia
T
Lammouchi
Hedi
H
Dridi
Souhir
S
Nafati
Afef
A
Ltaief
Soufien
S
Bennamou
Khalifa
K
Limem
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000175:diagnosis; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D010766:Phosphorylation; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*
D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D015415:Biomarkers; D010446:Peptide Fragments; C075222:amyloid beta-protein (1-42); D016875:tau Proteins