in vivo tau PET imaging in dementia: pathophysiology, radiotracer quantification, and a systematic review of clinical findings.

in vivo tau PET imaging in dementia: pathophysiology, radiotracer quantification, and a systematic review of clinical findings. Ageing Res Rev. 2017 Mar 14;: Authors: Hall B, Mak E, Cervenka S, Aigbirhio FI, Rowe JB, O'Brien JT Abstract In addition to the deposition of β-amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles composed of aggregated hyperphosphorylated tau are one of the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Until now, our understanding about the natural history and topography of tau deposition has only been based on post-mortem and cerebrospinal fluid studies, and evidence continues to implicate tau as a central driver of downstream neurodegenerative processes and cognitive decline. Recently, it has become possible to assess the regional distribution and severity of tau burden in vivo with the development of novel radiotracers for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. In this article, we provide a comprehensive discussion of tau pathophysiology, its quantification with novel PET radiotracers, as well as a systematic review of tau PET imaging in normal aging and various dementia conditions: mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, progressive supranuclear palsy, and Lewy body dementia. We discuss the main findings in relation to group differences, clinical-cognitive correlations of tau PET, and multi-modal relationships among tau PET and other path...
Source: Ageing Research Reviews - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Ageing Res Rev Source Type: research