Clinical use of tau PET in Aβ PET positive individuals: a case series
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background Identifying individuals’ levels of tau PET pathology could prove to be beneficial in clinical settings, given that emerging therapies aimed reducing Aβ seem to be most effective in these individuals. Here, we present the cases of four patients who visited the memory clinic at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center between June and December 2023 and underwent both Aβ and tau‐PET scans. Method These individuals had standard clinical and cognitive outcomes, typical blood tests order in patients with memory impairment, MRI, and, as part of the HEAD study, PET PIB Aβ and two tau PET tracers (MK6240 and Flortaucipir). Result All patients presented a primary complaint of progressive memory decline. The results of their blood count, metabolic panel, TSH, and vitamin B12 tests were unremarkable. Patient 1 had a normal MRI, while Patients 2‐4 exhibited mild ischemic changes (Table 1). All patients tested positive for amyloid PET, supporting the diagnosis of AD. However, their tau PET results varied. Patients 1 (MOCA = 6) and 3 (MOCA =19), who were demented with impaired Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), tested positive for tau PET with Braak stages V‐VI using both tau PET tracers. Conversely, the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) Patients 2 (MOCA = 19) and 5 (MOCA = 29, neuropsych evaluation indicating MCI), who exhibited low tau levels, tested positive for MK6240 but negative for FTP. Conclusion All four patients exhibited symptoms and signs consistent with typical amnestic AD presentation, which were confirmed using Aβ PET. Aβ PET presented a similar pattern across all individuals (Figure 1). Tau PET demonstrated greater variability, with lower levels in less cognitively impaired patients. Although tau PET can potentially be useful in identifying individuals in the earliest stages that would benefit from Aβ‐lowering therapies, this small series did not exclude that a low MOCA score combined with Aβ PET could achieve a similar outcome. Larger samples in real‐world clinical contexts are necessary to identify individuals with discrepancies between tau PET uptake and cognitive tests. This would reinforce the need for tau PET markers as complementary tests, singularly capable of identifying individuals across various biological stages to indicate therapies in clinical practice.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.005 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.004 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.004 | 0.003 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.005 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".