Role of Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers and (18)F-florbetapir PET Imaging in the Diagnosis of Primary Progressive Aphasia: A Retrospective Analysis

Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord. 2019 Jul-Sep;33(3):282-284. doi: 10.1097/WAD.0000000000000289.

Abstract

The use of biomarkers has recently supported the association between Alzheimer disease (AD) pathology and the logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia (PPA). We aim to investigate possible differences in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker concentrations in the three PPA variants, and to assess any agreement between CSF biomarkers and (18)F-florbetapir PET. A group of 10 PPA were retrospectively enrolled. Patients with logopenic variant (lvPPA) showed different levels of Aβ1-42 and p-tau compared to nonfluent/agrammatic and semantic variants (nfv/svPPA). All nfv/svPPA patients had negative amyloid PET. Among the lvPPA group, a negative amyloid PET was found only in one patient, who was also the only one to display a normal CSF. Thus, this small cohort appeared to display an excellent agreement between CSF and (18)F-florbetapir PET and suggest that these examinations may have the same validity in detecting in vivo evidence of AD pathology in PPA clinical variants.

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease / diagnostic imaging
  • Alzheimer Disease / pathology
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / analysis
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Aniline Compounds*
  • Aphasia, Primary Progressive* / diagnostic imaging
  • Aphasia, Primary Progressive* / pathology
  • Biomarkers / cerebrospinal fluid*
  • Brain / pathology
  • Ethylene Glycols*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Peptide Fragments / analysis
  • Peptide Fragments / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Positron-Emission Tomography*
  • Primary Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia / diagnostic imaging
  • Primary Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia / pathology
  • Retrospective Studies

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • Aniline Compounds
  • Biomarkers
  • Ethylene Glycols
  • Peptide Fragments
  • amyloid beta-protein (1-40)
  • florbetapir