Detection of Tau-PET Positivity in Clinically Diagnosed Mild Cognitive Impairment with Multidimensional Features

The way to evaluate brain tau pathology in vivo is tau positron emission tomography (tau-PET) or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis. In the clinically diagnosed mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a proportion of tau-PET are negative. Interest in less expensive and convenient ways to detect tau pathology in Alzheimer's disease has increased due to the high cost of tau-PET and the invasiveness of lumbar puncture, which typically slows down the cost and enrollment of clinical trials.

We aimed to investigate one simple and effective method in predicting tau-PET status in MCI individuals.

The sample included 154 individuals which were dichotomized into tau-PET (+) and tau-PET (-) using a cut-off of >1.33. We used stepwise regression to select the unitary or combination of variables that best predicted tau-PET. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to assess the accuracy of single and multiple clinical markers.

The combined performance of three variables [Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale 13 (ADAS-Cog13), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), ADNI-Memory summary score (ADNI-MEM)] in neurocognitive measures demonstrated good predictive accuracy of tau-PET status [accuracy = 85.7%, area under the curve (AUC) = 0.879]. The combination of clinical markers model (APOEɛ4, neurocognitive measures and structural MRI imaging of middle temporal) had the best discriminative power (AUC = 0.946).

As a noninvasive test, the combination of APOEɛ4, neurocognitive measures and structural MRI imaging of middle temporal accurately predicts tau-PET status. The finding may provide a non-invasive, cost-effective tool for clinical application in predicting tau pathology among MCI individuals.