Neurológia pre prax 1/2026
Clinical relevance of CSF analysis in various neurodegenerative diseases
Neurodegenerative diseases are broadly characterized by progressive damage of CNS with dementia being the most common clinical presentation. Several diseases fall into this category such as Alzheimer´s disease (AD), Parkinson´s disease (PD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Coexisting brain pathology and clinical heterogeneity may hamper the diagnostic accuracy and delay effective treatment. Disease- specific biomarkers, alongside clinical features and imaging methods can substantially improve the diagnosis. Some of the most recent criteria rely on the involvement of CSF core biomarkers in the diagnostic work-up. Despite the distinct pathomechanism, fluid biomarkers are detectable before symptoms onset becoming helpful tools in the early diagnosis and possess the potential as screening tool, either. Recently, novel methods to measure core biomarkers in blood have been developed pointing toward the perspectives in the non-invasive diagnosis and screening of neurodegenerative disorders in the clinical settings.
Keywords: CSF, biomarkers, Alzheimer´s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, amyotrofic lateral sclerosis, tau, neurofilaments, a-synuclein
