Cerebrospinal Fluid tau/β-Amyloid42 Ratio as a Prediction of Cognitive Decline in Nondemented Older Adults

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Abstract
Without truly effective therapies, Alzheimer disease (AD) will soon become a public health crisis. Biological markers are essential to aid in the development of disease-modifying therapies and identify individuals at high risk or in the earliest clinical stages. Alzheimer disease pathologic abnormalities (amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles) appear to begin 10 to 20 years before cognitive symptoms or significant neuronal loss.1-5 Thus, it is critical to identify affected individuals while they are still cognitively normal (preclinical AD), prior to overt synaptic and neuronal loss, so new therapies have a chance to preserve normal brain function.