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Dementia in 2014

Towards early diagnosis in Alzheimer disease

Nature Reviews Neurology volume 11, pages 69–70 (2015)Cite this article

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Improved neuroimaging and molecular markers of Alzheimer disease (AD) have aided diagnosis of AD in the very early stages, and have facilitated differential diagnosis between AD and other neurodegenerative disorders with dementia. The finding that some older individuals can show amyloid-β pathology while remaining cognitively intact raises important questions regarding prevention strategies.

The improvements in imaging markers for AD have led to attempts to incorporate biomarkers into AD diagnostics—an effort led by the International Working Group (IWG) and the US National Institute of Aging–Alzheimer Association (NIA–AA). In a study published in The Lancet Neurology in 2014, the IWG proposed a revised version of the research diagnostic criteria for AD: Aβ plaques in the brain quantified by PET and levels of Aβ1–42, total tau (t-tau) and phosphorylated tau (p-tau) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) should be considered as pathophysiological markers of AD, whereas neurodegeneration quantified by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) PET and brain atrophy quantified by structural MRI should be considered as a marker of disease progression.1

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Figure 1: Factors contributing to AD pathology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Translational Alzheimer Neurobiology, Dept NVS, Center of Alzheimer Research, Novum, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, S-14157, Sweden

    Agneta Nordberg

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  1. Agneta Nordberg
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Correspondence to Agneta Nordberg.

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The author declares no competing financial interests.

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Nordberg, A. Towards early diagnosis in Alzheimer disease. Nat Rev Neurol 11, 69–70 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2014.257

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