Clinical Scorecard: The Hidden Source of Elevated Tau

At a Glance

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.

Clinical Best Practices

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