Chen YR, Liang CS, Chu H, et al. - The study illustrates that for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), blood-based biomarkers are minimally invasive and cost-effective tools; nevertheless, the evidence for detecting mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) was still limited.

• Researchers enrolled a total of 17 studies including a total of 2,083 patients.

• The DOR was 32.2 for the plasma Aβ42 (sensitivity = 88 %, specificity = 81 %), 29.1 for the plasma Aβ oligomer (sensitivity = 80 %, specificity = 88 %), and 52.1 for the plasma tau (sensitivity = 90 %, specificity = 87 %), for differentiating patients with AD from the controls.

• The results showed that for differentiating aMCI from the controls, the DOR was 60.4 for the plasma Aβ42 (sensitivity = 86 %, specificity = 90 %) and 49.1 for the plasma tau (sensitivity = 79 %, specificity = 94 %).

• According to the findings, the use of ultra-high sensitive technology explained the heterogeneity in the diagnostic performance of blood-based biomarkers (P =  .01).