Professional Society and Insurer Recommendations:
Professional societies such as the Alzheimer’s Association and most major healthcare insurers fall short of actual endorsements or recommendations for using AD biomarkers. Most societies and insurers cite insufficient evidence that using AD-related biomarkers improves health outcomes. However, some organizations make limited recommendations on using biomarkers to supplement clinical evaluation. The following is a summary of the current status of recommendations on AD biomarkers:
- The Alzheimer’s Association currently does not recommend the specific use of AD biomarkers in clinical practice. Still, it does indicate that specific biomarkers in CSF are considered strong candidates for AD, and these biomarkers will gain importance if researchers succeed in developing treatments that can slow or stop the progression of AD.
- Recently, the Alzheimer’s Association established the Global Biomarker Standardization Consortium (GBSC) to gather key researchers, clinicians, and industry, regulatory and government leaders in Alzheimer's disease to achieve consensus on the best ways to standardize and validate biomarker tests for use in clinical practices around the world.
- An expert working group established under the EU Joint Program of Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) recently found sufficient evidence to support a recommendation to use CSF AD biomarkers as a supplement to clinical evaluation, particularly in uncertain and atypical cases, to identify or exclude AD as the cause of dementia. Because of insufficient evidence, the group concluded that it was uncertain whether CSF AD biomarkers outperform imaging biomarkers such as PET scans. Also, the group did not find evidence to support using biomarkers to improve patient well-being or reduce healthcare costs.
