Accuracy of cerebrospinal fluid Aβ(1-42) for Alzheimer's disease diagnosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
BACKGROUND
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for 65-70% of all dementia cases.


OBJECTIVE
We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the accuracy of cerebrospinal fluid Aβ1-42 for the diagnosis of AD. A comprehensive search of the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, LILACS, Grey literature, and EMBASE was performed for papers published from January 1990 to August 2013. The following Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms were searched: "Alzheimer disease" or "AD" and "amyloid-β" or "Aβ1-42".


METHODS
We included case-control and cross-sectional studies, prospective or retrospective, that evaluated Aβ1-42 levels in AD. Statistical analysis was performed using REVMAN 5.2, Meta Disc, and Stata 11.0.


RESULTS
A total of 804 citations were identified by the search strategy and 41 studies were included. Meta-analysis showed a sensitivity of 84.3% (95% CI: 85.6%-81%) and specificity of 79.4% (95% CI: 77.6%-81.1%). The diagnostic odds ratio was 28.9 (95% CI: 21.2-39.5).


CONCLUSIONS
Our study demonstrated that Aβ1-42 can discriminate AD from controls with good sensitivity and specificity.
Laboratory of Epidemiology at University of Extremo Sul Catarinense, Criciúma, SC, Brazil.
Maria Inês
MI
Rosa
Postgraduate Program in Health Sciences at University of Extremo Sul Catarinense, Criciúma, SC, Brazil.
Josmar
J
Perucchi
Postgraduate Program in Medicine: Medical Sciences at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Lidia Rosi
LR
Medeiros
Graduate Nutrition at University of Extremo Sul Catarinense, Criciúma, SC, Brazil.
Bruna
B
Fernandes
Postgraduate Program in Health Sciences at University of Extremo Sul Catarinense, Criciúma, SC, Brazil.
Maria Eduarda
ME
Fernandes Dos Reis
Graduated in Medicine at University of Extremo Sul Catarinense, Criciúma, SC, Brazil.
Bruno Rosa
BR
Silva
D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D000818:Animals; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*
D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D010446:Peptide Fragments; C075222:amyloid beta-protein (1-42)
Alzheimer's disease; Aβ$_{1-42}$; meta-analyses; systematic review