THE CORRELATION BETWEEN CSF BIOMARKERS AND VOLUMETRIC ATROPHY IN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer's disease (AD) which pathologic process appears as measurable changes in both cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and imaging biomarkers even a quarter of a century before clinical symptoms. The aim of our study was to assess the usefulness of CSF biomarkers, inter alia Aβ42, tau and p-tau, and imaging biomarkers, such as volumetric atrophy, in detecting the disease in the subclinical phase. Our study consisted of 191 subjects (94 men) with mean age of 65.7 years (range 42-84) that were selected in neurological examinations, including both CSF biomarkers and MRI examinations, conducted between years 2004-2011 in Kuopio University Hospital. In our cohort 55 subjects were diagnosed with AD after baseline (20 subjects before the age of 65). Forty-nine subjects had a completely deviant CSF profile, and of these subjects 29 had AD (59.2 %). All AD patients had decreased CSF Aβ42 concentration. Furthermore, there was considerable difference in hippocampal volume between patients diagnosed with AD and patients without diagnosed neurodegenerative disease (p<0,001) and between diagnosis AD and FTD (p<0,014). We also found a remarkable correlation between abnormal CSF profile and hippocampal atrophy (r=0,312, p<0,001).