Clinical Needs for Dementia and AD: Revising the Criteria

Bruno Dubois¹

New diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer disease have been recently proposed that are centered around a clinical core of early and significant episodic memory impairment. They stipulate that in addition there must also be at least one or more abnormal biomarkers amongst structural neuroimaging with MRI, molecular neuroimaging with PET and CSF analysis of amyloid β/tau proteins. The timeliness of these criteria is underscored by the myriad of drugs currently under development that are directed at altering the disease pathogenesis, particularly at the production and clearance of amyloid β as well as at the hyperphosphorylation state of tau.