“Increasing age is the biggest risk for Alzheimer’s disease, and therefore identification of elderly individuals in the pre-symptomatic stages when disease-modifying therapies might be most beneficial is of interest. A logical approach is to use biomarkers of core Alzheimer’s disease pathologies, such as neuronal loss, β-amyloidosis, and hyperphosphorylated tau. Findings from MRI studies have shown that increased atrophy occurs years before dementia, and studies using β-amyloid PET tracers have identified that a third or more of cognitively unimpaired individuals older than 70 years have substantial fibrillary β-amyloid accumulation. ….” This paper presents a critical evaluation of the new biomarker criteria for preclinical Alzheimer’s disease, which evolved from these and other studies.
Schott JM: Imaging the ageing brain: identifying early disease or opening Pandora’s box? Lancet Neurology 16(6): 411-413 (2017).
