Clinical Scorecard: The Hidden Source of Elevated Tau
At a Glance
Category
Detail
Condition
Clinical topic addressed by the source article: The Hidden Source of Elevated Tau
Key Mechanisms
Mechanisms or clinical associations described in the source article.
Target Population
Patients or participants described in the source article.
Care Setting
Diagnostic biomarker research using serum assays; the authors suggest selective enrichment could help laboratories clarify elevated or borderline p-tau217 results when clinical presentation is atypical.
Key Highlights
Direct serum testing found elevated brain-derived tau and p-tau217 in both Alzheimer’s disease and ALS compared with disease controls.
After immunoprecipitation enrichment, brain-derived tau and brain-derived p-tau217 were elevated in Alzheimer’s disease but not ALS.
For distinguishing Alzheimer’s disease from ALS, p-tau217 AUC increased from 0.729 with direct testing to 0.900 after brain-derived tau enrichment.
The brain-derived tau to brain-derived p-tau217 ratio had an AUC of 0.961.
Mass spectrometry found brain-derived tau predominated in frontal cortex and big tau was most abundant in skeletal muscle.
Guideline-Based Recommendations
Diagnosis
Management
Monitoring & Follow-up
Risks
Patient & Prescribing Data
The multicenter cohort included 139 patients with ALS, 101 with Alzheimer’s disease, and 75 disease controls; enrichment testing was performed in a subgroup of 60 patients with Alzheimer’s disease, 50 with ALS, and 39 disease controls.
No treatments or prescribing data were reported; the study assessed diagnostic biomarker methods.
