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Editorial
January 31, 2022

Prevalence Rates of Amyloid Positivity—Updates and Relevance

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California
JAMA Neurol. 2022;79(3):225-227. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2021.5225

The field of biomarker research in Alzheimer disease (AD) has exploded over the past 2 decades, with tens of thousands of individuals undergoing characterization of amyloid burden with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and/or positron emission tomography (PET). On the basis of amyloid PET data, the US Food and Drug Administration approved aducanumab in June 2021; it is the first disease-modifying treatment of AD that substantially reduces amyloid plaque buildup in the brain. Although controversial,1 this milestone emphasizes a central role of amyloid PET in modern clinical trial design. Knowledge of amyloid status has also been shown to change care in the clinical setting.2 Given the implications of this key modality for both clinical trials and patient care, there has been great interest in the prevalence of amyloid positivity as a function of demographic characteristics and clinical status.

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