Alzheimer's disease diagnosis
Extracellular amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques and intracellular aggregates of tau protein in form of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) are pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Brain imaging with positron emission tomography (PET) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker studies highlighted the long preclinical phase of AD in which a cascade of detectable biological abnormalities precede cognitive decline. The recent proliferation of imaging and fluid biomarkers of AD pathophysiology provides an opportunity for the identification of several biological stages in the preclinical phase of Alzheimer's disease 1).
Positron emission tomography
Biomarkers
1)
Therriault J, Zimmer ER, Benedet AL, Pascoal TA, Gauthier S, Rosa-Neto P. Staging of Alzheimer's disease: past, present, and future perspectives. Trends Mol Med. 2022 Jun 15:S1471-4914(22)00137-X. doi: 10.1016/j.molmed.2022.05.008. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35717526.