The challenges of diagnosis in alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

Current neuropathologic examination of the brain is still the gold standard for diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Postmortem studies, however, have indicated that current methods for the clinical diagnosis of AD are suboptimal.1 Recent research has demonstrated the clinical utility of amyloid-beta positron emission tomography (PET) scans, which detect the presence of amyloid-beta plaques in the brain. In a study presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) in London, UK, July 2017, by Nenad Bogdanovic, MD, PhD, of the University of Oslo in Norway, amyloid PET imaging was found to be a fundamental diagnostic tool for AD, establishing a definite diagnosis or excluding AD in all 50 study participants.2 The use of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid testing with a higher amyloid-beta plaque threshold than that traditionally used to establish a positive finding also resulted in high diagnostic accuracy, resulting in diagnosis or exclusion in 44 of 50 participants (88%) compared with only 21 individuals (42%) using traditional cutoffs.2. In an expert interview following AAIC 2017, Dr. Bogdanovic discusses the challenges of diagnosing AD and future developments in this active area of research.