Cerebrospinal fluid tau in dementia disorders: a large scale multicenter study by a Japanese study group

A large scale multicenter study of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tau levels A as conducted to determine the cut-off value, sensitivity and specificity for clinical usage as a biomarker of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Its use for early and differential diagnosis and the factors that increase CSF tau levels were also examined. CSF samples from a total of 1,03 1 Subjects including 366 patients with AD, 168 patients with non-Alzheimer type dementia (NA), 316 patients with non-dementia neurological diseases (ND) and 181 normal controls (NC) were measured using ELISA for tau. The cut-off value of tau, 375 pg/ml, showed 59.1% sensitivity and 89.5% specificity for diagnosis of AD compared with the other groups. The tau levels were increased from the early to late stages of AD. Elevation of CSF tau in the non-tauopath and tauopathy dementia group, chronic and acute damage to the cerebrum, and meningeal disturbance were other factors that required attention for clinical practice. Measurement of CSF tau was useful as a biomarker for early and differential diagnosis of AD. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.