Management of the adult with congenital hydrocephalus

This chapter attempts to develop biomarkers specific for idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) to distinguish it from other neurodegenerative conditions. The case for emerging biomarkers in iNPH has arisen because of similar developments in other common causes of dementia and the increasing awareness of both the epidemiology of NPH and its impact on the quality of life of elderly patients. Changes in the neurochemical composition of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) due to hydrocephalus have been widely documented. The problem with identifying diagnostic biomarkers between NPH and Alzheimer's disease (AD) is that NPH was used in those studies more as a comparative control group rather than as the primary studied group, apart from a few exceptions. The difficulty in the differential diagnosis of PD with patients with NPH lies in the features of the gait disorder. There have been much fewer studies developing prognosis biomarkers when compared with those assessing diagnostic biomarkers.