Abstract
CSF tau and Aβ42 are considered as important markers to diagnose Alzheimer's disease in early stages. Hence, it is important to assess their status in different types of dementia. The main objective of this study was to assess whether these CSF biomarkers can be used to make the differential diagnosis of AD. In the present study, articles published from 1998 till 2009 were taken and meta-analysis was performed to clarify the consistency in trends of biomarkers- CSF tau and Aβ 42 in AD and other dementias and whether the same can be used as diagnostic biomarkers for its early diagnosis. 11 out of 60 for CSF tau and 07 out of 40 for CSF Aβ 42, dementia case-control studies were selected for final analysis. Descriptive statistics shows that median effect size (raw mean difference) of CSF tau was 429 pg/mL (range: 32 to 910 pg/mL) in AD whereas in Dementia due to other causes (DOC) studies it was 69 pg/mL (range: −53 to 518 pg/mL). Similarly the median effect size of CSF Aβ 42 levels was −442 pg/mL (range: −652 to −41.200 pg/mL) whereas in DOC studies it was −193 pg/mL (range: −356 to −33 pg/mL).
Highlights
With the increase in life expectancy, Alzheimer’s disease, considered as disease of aging population, has become a major public health problem adding burden to societal costs each year for chronic care and lost productivity in developed and developing countries [1]
Meta-analysis was performed for CSF tau and amyloid β42 (Aβ42) levels, by calculating and combining the effect sizes, their standard error, and 95% confidence interval after extracting mean, standard deviation, and sample size from 11 CSF studies. 11 studies out of 60 studies for CSF tau levels and 7 studies out of 41 studies were selected for CSF Aβ42 levels in dementias from 1996 to 2009 using keywords CSF biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease, tau levels in Alzheimer’s disease, and Aβ42 levels in Alzheimer’s disease
Those studies were undertaken in which CSF tau and Aβ42 levels were measured in AD and other dementias in controls using Innotest kit from Innogenetics, Belgium
Summary
With the increase in life expectancy, Alzheimer’s disease, considered as disease of aging population, has become a major public health problem adding burden to societal costs each year for chronic care and lost productivity in developed and developing countries [1]. Attempts have been made in the last 4-5 decades to develop and validate specific biological markers which are able to detect the fundamental neuropathological changes occurring in AD in its early stage with high sensitivity (≥80%) and distinguish it from other dementias [2]. Based on these studies, the combination of total tau and amyloid β42 (Aβ42) was identified as being among the most promising and informative AD markers to be of use in early diagnosis and as surrogate biomarkers in CSF [2,3,4]. AD can be associated with other neurodegenerative diseases like Lewy body disease and progressive supranuclear palsy
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