The Alzheimer's Association international guidelines for handling of cerebrospinal fluid for routine clinical measurements of amyloid β and tau

• Published in: Alzheimer's & dementia Vol. 17; no. 9; pp. 1575 - 1582
• Main Authors: Hansson, Oskar, Batrla, Richard, Brix, Britta, Carrillo, Maria C., Corradini, Veronika, Edelmayer, Rebecca M., Esquivel, Rianne N., Hall, Christina, Lawson, John, Bastard, Nathalie Le, Molinuevo, José Luis, Nisenbaum, Laura K., Rutz, Sandra, Salamone, Salvatore J., Teunissen, Charlotte E., Traynham, Christopher, Umek, Robert M., Vanderstichele, Hugo, Vandijck, Manu, Wahl, Simone, Weber, Christopher J., Zetterberg, Henrik, Blennow, Kaj
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.09.2021
• Subjects: Alzheimer Disease - metabolism; Alzheimer's disease; Amyloid Beta; Amyloid beta-Peptides - cerebrospinal fluid; Biomarkers; Biomarkers - cerebrospinal fluid; Cerebrospinal Fluid; Clinical Laboratory Techniques - instrumentation; Clinical Laboratory Techniques - standards; Clinical Medicine; CSF; Diagnosis; Fresh CSF; Frozen CSF; Guidelines as Topic - standards; Handling; Humans; Internationality; Klinisk medicin; Measurements; Medical and Health Sciences; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Neurologi; Neurology; Neurosciences; Neurovetenskaper; Phosphorylation; Pre-Analytical; Specimen Handling - instrumentation; Specimen Handling - standards; Tau; tau Proteins - cerebrospinal fluid; Pre-Analytical; Measurements; Cerebrospinal Fluid; Frozen CSF; CSF; Biomarkers; Tau; Diagnosis; Fresh CSF; Alzheimer's disease; Amyloid Beta; Handling
• ISSN: 1552-5260; 1552-5279; 1552-5279
• DOI: 10.1002/alz.12316

The core cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers amyloid beta (Aβ42 and Aβ40), total tau, and phosphorylated tau, have been extensively clinically validated, with very high diagnostic performance for AD, including the early phases of the disease. However, between‐center differences in pre‐analytical procedures may contribute to variability in measurements across laboratories. To resolve this issue, a workgroup was led by the Alzheimer's Association with experts from both academia and industry. The aim of the group was to develop a simplified and standardized pre‐analytical protocol for CSF collection and handling before analysis for routine clinical use, and ultimately to ensure high diagnostic performance and minimize patient misclassification rates. Widespread application of the protocol would help minimize variability in measurements, which would facilitate the implementation of unified cut‐off levels across laboratories, and foster the use of CSF biomarkers in AD diagnostics for the benefit of the patients.