The use of cerebrospinal fluid and neuropathologic studies in neuropsychiatry practice and research

The gold standard for diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases (i.e. Alzheimer’s disease, Frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Dementia with Lewy bodies, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is neuropathological examination at autopsy. As such, laboratory studies play a central role in ante mortem diagnosis of these conditions and their differentiation from the neuroinflammatory, infectious, toxic, and other non-degenerative etiologies (e.g. rapidly-progressive dementias) that are encountered in neuropsychiatric practice. This review summarizes the use of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) laboratory studies in the diagnostic evaluation of dementia syndromes and emerging CSF biomarkers specific for underlying neuropathology in neurodegenerative disease research.