VIDEO: Phosphorylated tau assays most accurate in identifying amyloid PET status
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
PHILADELPHIA — In this Healio Video Perspective, Suzanne E. Schindler, MD, PhD, revealed phosphorylated tau biomarker assays were most accurate in identifying amyloid positron emission tomography status in Alzheimer’s disease.
“That’s relevant, because it means we can use p-tau217 rather than having to order different, separate tests,” noted Schindler, a clinical neurologist, dementia specialist and neuroscientist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Schindler and colleagues from the Foundation for the NIH conducted a head-to-head comparison of these assays to determine which detected Alzheimer’s disease-related amyloid pathology more accurately for which biomarker.
They examined assays from C2N Diagnostics, Roche, Fujirebio Diagnostics, ALZPath, Janssen and Quanterix that measured the presence of amyloid-beta 42/40, phosphorylated-tau217 and p-tau181, along with neurofilament light chain, in 392 individuals (median age, 78.1 years; 49.2% female; 48.7% amyloid positron emission tomography [PET] positive) who were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, both with and without cognitive impairment.
In those who would be considered amyloid-PET negative, Schindler added, plasma amyloid-beta 42/40 best correlated with lower levels of amyloid burden. However, she noted that form of test did not perform as well in those who were cognitively unimpaired because lower levels of amyloid pathology.