Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers for Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy Diagnosis

Abstract

An accurate diagnosis of sporadic cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is critical for patient management and research (including clinical trials) for this common small vessel pathology of the brain. While the "big bang" of the CAA field has been the device and wide adoption of the clinico-radiological Boston criteria which allowed for CAA diagnosis during life, these criteria are not without major shortcoming. As it is now becoming evident that CAA is probably not a single disease, but rather represents divergent pathophysiological phenotypes and clinical trajectories, new biomarker-driven diagnostic approaches should be sought. One such complimentary approach for CAA diagnosis is the use of cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers (CSF), which could provide dynamic measures of the underlying disease process and is discussed in this commentary given exciting new advances. A hint on how the practicing clinician could apply the current CSF data for CAA diagnosis is also provided.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; amyloid-β; biomarkers; cerebral amyloid angiopathy; cerebral small vessel disease; cerebrospinal fluid.