A comparison of tau protein in cerebrospinal fluid between corticobasal degeneration and progressive supranuclear palsy

Many clinical and pathological discussions have been focused on the difficu lty of differential diagnosis between corticobasal degeneration (CBD) and p rogressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) in recent years. This study was conduct ed to evaluate the usefulness of tau proteins in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for the differentiation of these two diseases. Subjects consisted of 10 pat ients with CBD (four males and six females with a mean age of 67.9 +/- 5.8 years), 12 patients with PSP (eight males and four females with a mean age of 62.6 +/- 5.8 years) and 36 control subjects (CTL) (16 males and 20 femal es with a mean age of 65.8 +/- 9.9 years). The CBD group included patients with probable CBD, while all the patients in the PSP group satisfied the di agnostic criteria developed by the National Institute of Neurological Disor ders and Stroke and Society for PSP (NINDS-SPSP). CSF tau proteins were mea sured with the sandwich ELISA method (Innogenetics, Belgium). The CSF tau p rotein level was 320.1 +/- 86.5 pg/ml in the CBD group, 151.5 +/- 52.7 pg/m l in the PSP group and 128.7 +/- 91.7 pg/ml in the CTL group. Significant d ifferences were noted in tau protein levels between the CBD group and both the PSP group (P < 0.001) and the CTL group (P < 0.005). We suggested that the measurement of CSF tau proteins may be useful for the differentiation b etween CBD and PSP. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reser ved.