ABSTRACT
Background: Dementia is a common pathological condition that affects older people. Most causes of dementia are Alzheimer\u2019s disease and vascular dementia. Diagnosing these conditions mostly relied on clinical patterns, but some biomarkers have been mentioned as the indicators of this condition. Objectives: 1) To evaluate the alteration of some biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from Alzheimer\u2019s patients. 2) To compare the concentration of biomarkers in CSF samples from patients with vascular dementia and Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Subjects and method: Case group involved 41 patients who were diagnosed as AD and vascular dementia based on DSM-IV criteria. 31 matched healthy people were included in control group. All subjects were given neuro-psychological tests and thorough clinical examination. Brain CT scan and MRI were done for both groups. CSF samples were taken from patients in the study group to measure levels of some biomarkers. Results. The levels of total taurine (T-tau) and phosphorylated taurine (P-tau) 181 proteins are higher in the dementia group. The concentration of Abeta-42 is significantly different between case and control groups, but similar between vascular dementia and Alzheimer\u2019s disease patients. Conclusion: Changes in biomarkers are valuable in different diagnosis of Alzheimer\u2019s disease and other types of dementia. However, findings of CSF studies have to be considered with findings from imaging studies and clinical examination.