ArticleClinical chemistry2026
Diagnostic Value of Serum p-tau217 in Alzheimer Disease: Equal to Plasma in Levels and Clinical Utility?
Article in Clinical chemistry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Diagnostic performance of plasma p-Tau217, p-Tau181, and p-Tau231 across the Alzheimer's disease continuum: a network meta-analysis.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Pooled it
- Blood Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease and Patterns of Structural Brain Changes in the Community.Annals of neurology · 2026Article
- Long term clinical performance and analytical robustness of the Lumipulse plasma p-tau217 assay in routine clinical practice.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Plasma proteomic profiles of Alzheimer's disease and neurodegeneration in African cohorts.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Anemia and Blood Biomarkers of Alzheimer Disease in Dementia Development.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Automated high-throughput quantification of plasma p-tau217 and APOE-ε4 for Alzheimer's disease diagnosis and cognitive decline in a memory cohort.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPhosphorylated tau 217 (p-tau217) has emerged as a leading blood-based biomarker for Alzheimer disease (AD). While typically measured in plasma, serum is a widely used matrix in clinical laboratories, yet few p-tau217 assays have been validated for serum. Evaluating serum p-tau217 performance is essential for expanding its use in clinical and research settings, particularly for cohorts with only serum samples available.
methodsWe quantified p-tau217 in plasma and serum from individuals within the AD continuum (n = 100; mean age 72.5 ± 5.0 years; 54% female) using 6 assays across 4 platforms. Spearman correlation, Passing-Bablok regression, and receiver operating characteristics analysis were used to assess intermatrix agreement and diagnostic performance. Specific validation parameters (e.g., precision, parallelism, dilution linearity, stability) were evaluated in both matrices.
resultsHigh correlations between plasma and serum were observed for most assays (ρ > 0.8), though plasma often yielded higher concentrations. Notably, the Lumipulse assay showed near-perfect correlation (ρ = 0.98) and minimal bias. Fold changes in p-tau217 levels across the AD continuum were comparable between matrices, though cutoffs for detecting AD pathology differed. Applying plasma-derived cutoffs to serum resulted in misclassification rates ranging from 16% to 47%, except for Lumipulse (10% in serum vs 5% in plasma). Not all assays performed equally in serum, as reflected in validation metrics.
conclusionsSerum p-tau217, across multiple platforms, shows strong correlations with plasma p-tau217 and reflected comparable patterns across the AD continuum. However, absolute concentrations differed for most assays, thus requiring differing disease specific cutoffs. Most of the evaluated platforms demonstrated reliable quantification of p-tau217 in serum, yielding satisfactory validation performance. These findings support serum as a viable alternative to plasma for p-tau217 quantification in both research and clinical settings, provided matrix-specific validation is ensured.
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