Alzheimer's CSF Test: Useful or Useless?: The Future

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Medscape Today

Andrew Wilner, MD

When a disease-modifying therapy becomes available, early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and diagnostic testing will be enthusiastically embraced by patients and neurologists. At that point, the relative advantages and disadvantages, including patient comfort and cost, of CSF testing and other diagnostic testing for Alzheimer's disease, such as genetic testing, neuropsychological testing, and neuroimaging, including magnetic resonance imaging of the temporal lobes, 2-deoxy-2-[F-18] fluoro-D-glucose Positron Emission Tomography (FDG-PET), amyloid radioligand Pittsburgh compound B (PiB), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and their possible combinations, must be evaluated. This day may not be far off; a review of ongoing studies at clinicaltrials.gov reveals multiple candidate drugs under evaluation. For now, neurologists should keep a lumbar puncture tray handy, but they needn't stock up.