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Published on: September 3, 2021
Total Tau Level in Cerebrospinal Fluid as a Predictor of Survival in Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease: A Retrospective
Hamza Coban1, Pranay Nadella1, Danni Tu1
1Division of Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders (HC, JRB), Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania; Perelman School of Medicine (PN), University of Pennsylvania; and Department of Biostatistics (DT, RS), Epidemiology, and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, PA.
Background And Objectives:
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rapidly progressive and universally fatal neurodegenerative disorder with highly variable survival times, ranging from weeks to years. However, there are currently no tools for prognosticating a patient's survival time. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the relationship between CSF total tau (t-tau) levels and time to death in patients with CJD.
Methods:
We use cases with CJD recorded in the electronic health record of a tertiary academic medical center from 2010 to 2022.
Results:
We identified 29 cases with diagnosis of CJD. Using a Cox proportional hazards model, we find that elevated t-tau levels (>4,000 pg/mL) are associated with 9.62 (95% confidence interval: 1.93-47.92) times the hazard of death compared with CJD patients with t-tau less than 4,000 pg/mL.
Discussion:
This finding supports the use of CSF t-tau as a prognostic biomarker for CJD.
