[Alzheimer's disease as brain amyloidosis: diagnosis using cerebrospinal fluid abeta and tau].

Recent progress in the treatment for Alzheimer's disease (AD) emphasizes the need for early diagnosis of AD. It is also becoming a noteworthy issue to determine if a patient with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has incipient AD. Three cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers: beta-amyloid42 (Abeta42), total tau (t-tau) and phosphorylated tau (p-tau) have been evaluated in numerous scientific papers. Summary of these large-scale studies suggested that measurements of Abeta40/42 and t-tau in CSF are clinically useful for the diagnosis of AD, especially when they are combined. Studies showed that measurement of p-tau improves the early and differential diagnosis of AD. They are also useful markers to identify incipient AD in MCI cases. Early diagnosis of AD using these assays is an evidence-based biomarker that can be the basis for treatment with drugs aimed at targeting the degenerating processes of AD.