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Published on: November 10, 2008
CSF-tau and CSF-Abeta(1-42) in posterior cortical atrophy
Thomas P Baumann1, Hüseyin Duyar, Marc Sollberger
1Memory Clinic-Neuropsychology Center, Department of Geriatrics, University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland. th.baumann@unibas.ch
Objective:
Our purpose was to measure Abeta(1-42), T-tau and P-tau(181) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), a presenile dementia likely to represent a variant of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Methods:
CSF samples from 34 subjects including 9 patients with PCA, 11 age-matched patients with AD and 14 age-matched cognitively healthy controls were analyzed using commercially available ELISA kits.
Results:
The Abeta(1-42), T-tau and P-tau(181) levels in PCA patients differed significantly (p < 0.02) from those in healthy controls but were indistinguishable from subjects with a clinical diagnosis of AD.
Conclusion:
High T-tau and P-tau(181) and low Abeta(1-42) levels in PCA - typically observed in AD - indicate that the underlying pathology of PCA is usually AD. If these findings are replicated in PCA patients with autopsy-confirmed AD neuropathology, PCA patients may be eligible for disease-modifying AD treatments.
