Stability of plasma samples and Alzheimer’s biomarkers
Alzheimer’s disease is considered one of the most common causes of dementia in the elderly. Recently, blood biomarkers: Aβ1-42, Aβ1-40 and phospho Tau181 (p-Tau181), are proving useful in the diagnosis of the disease in research studies, but their analytical stability is unknown.
A joint study between the Memory Unit and the Biochemistry Service of the Santa Creu i Sant Pau hospital, published in the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, has made it possible to determine the optimal pre-analytical conditions for the quantification of these biomarkers in blood using automated analysis platforms.
What have we done?
To assess the stability of the samples, data from 72 patients from the Sant Pau Memory Unit with varying degrees of cognitive impairment were analysed. Blood samples were processed in the laboratory as usual and stored in parallel following different time and temperature conditions. Subsequently, it was assessed whether there were differences in the results obtained.
Relevance of the stability study
The results of this study provide relevant information for the standardization of both the collection and the storage conditions of these samples and therefore represent a step forward in this very promising avenue of Alzheimer’s biomarkers in blood