[MCI-plus: mild cognitive impairment with rapid progression. Part II: Biomarkers and research methods]

Dtsch Med Wochenschr. 2009 Jan;134(3):88-91. doi: 10.1055/s-0028-1105896. Epub 2009 Jan 13.
[Article in German]

Abstract

Long-term studies will be pivotal in order to examine the efficacy of preventive and early therapeutic interventions during the preclinical phase of dementia. Biomarkers will be of importance due to the large sample sizes and the necessary logistic efforts, high drop-out rates and slow clinical progression. The validity of functional and even structural imaging methods is currently investigated with early and promising results; it is presently unclear whether conventional csf-markers of Alzheimer's disease (beta-amyloid and tau-proteins) are sufficiently sensitive to monitor the effects of early interventions. It also remains doubtful whether modifications of these methods will ever be useful and available for practical purposes.

Publication types

  • English Abstract
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Alzheimer Disease / diagnosis*
  • Alzheimer Disease / prevention & control
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Biomarkers / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Brain / pathology
  • Cognition Disorders / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Cognition Disorders / diagnosis*
  • Cognition Disorders / prevention & control
  • Disease Progression
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Positron-Emission Tomography
  • Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
  • tau Proteins / cerebrospinal fluid

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • Biomarkers
  • tau Proteins