Eloy Rodríguez Rodríguez
Head of the Neurology Department at the Marqués de Valdecilla-IDIVAL University Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of Cantabria
This is a very well conducted study, of high scientific quality and which studies the performance of the plasma marker p-tau217 in primary and secondary care settings, using an automated platform that is already present in many centres (Lumipulse).
The usefulness of this technique has already been explored in various clinical populations in reference units (both in Spain and abroad, including our recently published series). What this article contributes is the simultaneous study of several cohorts from different centres and the inclusion of a Primary Care cohort. The results are very good, even in these more demanding scenarios, using a two-point cut-off approach that classifies patients as high (positive), low (negative) and intermediate (borderline).
The results point to the clinical usefulness of this marker and the capacity to extend its use from specialised consultations (where it is beginning to be used, and is already recommended by the SEN Dementia Group) to less specialised consultations. This will contribute to ‘democratising’ the precision biological diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, avoiding in many cases the need for more invasive (lumbar puncture) or expensive and less available (PET) marker determinations.