Biomarker Changes Predict Dementia

Biomarker Changes Predict Dementia

What if the biomarkers of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) could be diagnosed years before the symptoms that impact quality of life begin to emerge? Scientists now believe this may be possible, thanks to research conducted at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. In the study, published online in October in the journal Neurology, the team used cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers to monitor biomarker evolution prior to the onset of clinical symptoms in subjects with dementia.

During its investigation, the team reestablished a cohort of 265 subjects who had been studied between 1995 and 2005 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The new study sought to determine the factors present among cognitively healthy individuals that may help predict dementia. All participants received annual neurophysical examinations, and CSF collection and magnetic resonance imaging was performed every 2 years. Of the original cohort of subjects, 53 developed dementia by their last evaluation.

Analysis of the data found that baseline-to-longitudinal shifts in CSF values were predictive of MCI more than 5 years before symptoms emerged. The researchers suggest that studying CSF ratios may allow clinicians to predict the likelihood of individuals to develop MCI, as this biomarker appears to signal changes in cognition long before the disease manifests itself in the brain.

Hygiene Connection E-Newsletter

November 2013