Journal Article

Plasma phosphorylated tau for Alzheimer's disease diagnosis

Keshavan, Ashvini, Algeciras-Schimnich, Alicia

2025

Overview

[...]the development of certified reference materials allowing for standardisation of measurements across assays for the same p-tau moiety is awaited and would facilitate assay performance comparison. 4 Some gaps remain for the translation of these findings into clinical practice. Other proposed ways of improving accuracy of p-tau217 include the use of ratios (eg, the ratio of p-tau217 to Aβ42) or by calculating the percentage of p-tau217. 7 For clinicians, sensitivity and specificity have less of a direct effect on decision making with individual patients than the negative and positive predictive values of testing, which change according to prevalence. 8 Clinicians should integrate information from these biomarkers with a thorough clinical assessment that takes into account their assessment of the pre-test probability of Alzheimer's disease. A global clinician survey indicated that confidence in clinically implementing Alzheimer's disease blood biomarkers would be improved by the provision of educational materials supporting understanding of what the test results mean (for both clinicians and patients, in terms of test performance, validation, and interpretation) and how test results will influence treatment decisions, and by more data on their performance in real-world populations. 9 To fully assess diagnostic accuracy, studies are required based on prospectively collected cohorts, incorporating high ethnic diversity 10 and individuals with multimorbidity, and using predetermined cut-points.

• Publisher: Elsevier Ltd,Elsevier Limited
• Subject: Accuracy / Alzheimer's disease / Biomarkers / Cognitive ability / Decision making / Dementia / Information processing / Medical diagnosis / Neurodegenerative diseases / Pathology / Patients / Plasma / Tau protein