[Biomarkers for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease]

Alzheimer's disease is responsible for 40-50% of dementia cases. Future treatment may include disease-modifying compounds unlikely to be efficient if administered late in the course, thus necessitating early diagnosis. Furthermore, revised diagnostic research criteria that include biomarkers of pathological accumulation of cortical beta-amyloid (decreased beta-amyloid in cerebrospinal fluid and amyloid imaging) and neurodegeneration (structural MRI and 18F-FDG-PET), have been published. Future research is needed to determine specific evidence-based application of these biomarkers in the clinic as well as discovery of novel biomarkers.