Cerebrospinal fluid τ and β-amyloid(I-42) in dementia disorders

The reliability of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)-tau and CSF-beta -amyloid assays for diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and other dementing disorders such as frontotemporal dementia (FTD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is reviewed. CSF assessment of the two proteins is useful in early diagnosis of AD and to differentiate it from FTD and DLB. Extremely high CSF-tau levels can discriminate CJD from AD. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd, All rights reserved.