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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Sep 2.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Med. 2020 Mar 2;26(3):387–397. doi: 10.1038/s41591-020-0762-2

Table 2.

Diagnostic accuracy of plasma pTau181, NfL, Aβ42/40 ratio and CSF pTau181

Dx vs Dx Test n per group AUC 95% CI p-value* Sensitivity Specificity Cut point (pg/mL)
FTP-PET positive vs negative, only MCI pTau181, plasma 11 vs 20 0.977 0.929-1.000 <0.0001 0.909 0.950 8.1
Autopsy confirmed: AD vs FTLD-TDP pTau181, plasma 15 vs 15 0.947 0.873-1.000 <0.0001 1.000 0.800 9.4
Aβ-PET positive vs negative, only MCI pTau181, plasma 18 vs 21 0.944 0.873-1.000 <0.0001 0.944 0.857 8.4
Clinical AD vs FTLD pTau181, CSF 16 vs 29 0.931 0.854-1.000 <0.0001 0.875 0.897 67.0
FTP-PET positive vs negative (all) pTau181, plasma 60 vs 37 0.919 0.863-0.976 <0.0001 0.917 0,838 8.1
Aβ-PET positive vs negative (all) pTau181, plasma 90 vs 95 0.914 0.869-0.958 <0.0001 0.889 0.853 8.0
Clinical AD vs FTLD pTau181, plasma 56 vs 190 0.894 0.855-0.933 <0.0001 0.982 0.711 8.7
Autopsy confirmed: AD vs combined FTLD-TDP + FTLD-tau pTau181, plasma 15 vs 67 0.878 0.798-0.957 <0.0001 1.000 0.672 9.5
Aβ-PET positive vs negative, healthy controls only pTau181, plasma 11 vs 29 0.859 0.732-0.986 0.001 0.818 0.828 7.6
Autopsy confirmed: AD vs FTLD-tau pTau181, plasma 15 vs 52 0.858 0.765-0.950 <0.0001 1.000 0.635 9.6
Autopsy confirmed: AD vs FTLD + mutation carriers pTau181, plasma 15 vs 115 0.854 0.772-0.937 <0.0001 1.000 0.626 8.9
FTP-PET positive vs negative Aβ42/40 ratio, plasma 42 vs 34 0.782 0.674-0.890 <0.0001 0.647 0.857 0.16
Aβ-PET positive vs negative Aβ42/40 ratio, plasma 68 vs 67 0.768 0.686-0.849 <0.0001 0.567 0.926 0.15
Autopsy confirmed: AD vs FTLD-TDP Plasma NfL 7 vs 14 0.765 0.557-0.973 0.052 0.643 1.000 53.7
Autopsy confirmed: FTLD-TDP vs FTLD-tau pTau181, plasma 15 vs 52 0.664 0.499-0.829 0.054 0.981 0.333 9.6
Autopsy confirmed: AD vs combined FTLD-TDP + FTLD-tau NfL, plasma 6 vs 63 0.656 0.369-0.774 0.209 0.429 1.000 48.7
Autopsy confirmed: FTLD-TDP vs FTLD-tau NfL, plasma 13 vs 50 0.655 0.494-0.817 0.086 0.615 0.700 55.0
Autopsy confirmed: AD vs FTLD + mutation carriers NfL, plasma 6 vs 70 0.633 0.439-0.828 0.281 0.414 1.000 48.0
FTP-PET positive vs negative NfL, plasma 34 vs 27 0.606 0.446-0.765 0.159 0.824 0.556 64.5
Aβ-PET positive vs negative NfL, plasma 51 vs 67 0.559 0.453-0.664 0.276 0.433 0.882 42.7

Cut-off value is adjusted for age, autopsy confirmed cut-off is adjusted for age and CDRsb.

Abbreviations: Aβ, beta-amyloid; AD, Alzheimer’s disease; AUC, Area under the curve; CSF, Cerebrospinal fluid; FTP-PET, 18F-Flortaucipir PET; MCI, mild cognitive impairment; NfL, neurofilament light chain; PET, positron emission tomography; pTau181, phosphorylated tau 181

*

p-value corrected for False Discovery Rate