title: Serum tau protein as a marker for the diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
abstract: Total tau protein (t-tau) levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) (CSF-tau) are markedly elevated in patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Some CSF-tau may leak into the blood. We evaluated t-tau levels in serum (serum-tau) as a possible marker for the differential diagnosis of CJD from Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other rapidly progressive dementias (RPD). Serum- and CSF-tau levels were determined in patients with sporadic CJD (n = 12), AD (n = 10) and RPD but no CJD (non-CJD-RPD; n = 9) who showed RPD fulfilling the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for possible CJD at onset and had a final diagnosis other than CJD. We also analyzed serum-tau levels in healthy volunteers as a control group (n = 10). Serum- as well as CSF-tau levels were significantly elevated in CJD group compared to those in AD, non-CJD-RPD and healthy control groups. Serum-tau would be a simple and useful marker to distinguish CJD from AD and non-CJD-RPD, requiring further large study to confirm this.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Neurobiology of Aging, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Science, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8640, Japan.
authors.forename: Moeko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Noguchi-Shinohara
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hamaguchi
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nozaki
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.forename: Masahito
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamada
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000175:diagnosis; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D007562:Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome / Q000097:blood* / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000097:blood* / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D016875:tau Proteins