Second, we examined volumetric associations with amyloid (amyloid positive, tau negative versus control) and tau in the presence of amyloid (amyloid positive, tau positive versus amyloid positive, tau negative) across 52 brain areas. 5 key findings →
Design: meta-analysis
Participants: 306
Evidence: high
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An accurate blood test for Alzheimer's disease that is sensitive to preclinical proteinopathy and cognitive decline has clear implications for early detection and secondary prevention. 2 key findings →
Design: cohort study
Participants: 165
Evidence: moderate
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We demonstrated that higher amyloid burden as measured by both CSF amyloid beta 42/40 ratio and non-displaceable binding potential in the posterior cingulate cortex was associated with lower functional connectivity in the default mode network. 3 key findings →
Design: longitudinal study
Participants: 173
Evidence: moderate
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Mixed-effect models assessed rates of memory decline in relation to baseline plasma p-tau181, and whether plasma p-tau181 significantly predicted memory decline beyond widely available clinical and genetic data (age, sex, years of education, cardiovascular and metabolic conditions, and APOEε4 status). 5 key findings →
Design: longitudinal study
Participants: 604
Evidence: moderate
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Plasma amyloid-β peptide concentration has recently been shown to have high accuracy to predict amyloid-β plaque burden in the brain. 2 key findings →
Design: longitudinal study
Participants: 15
Evidence: moderate
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Original source
The chronological progression of brain atrophy over decades, from pre-symptomatic to dementia stages, has never been formally depicted in Alzheimer's disease. 2 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Participants: 3,512
Evidence: moderate
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This study tracked tau PET scans over time in over 800 people across the Alzheimer's spectrum and found that while tau broadly follows the classic 'Braak stage' spreading pattern, the exact regions affected vary a lot from person to person, especially as disease progresses. 4 key findings →
Design: cohort
Participants: 832
Evidence: moderate
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Regions with early signs of elevated amyloid β uptake were used to form an early, focal composite and compared to a commonly used global composite, in a separate validation sample. 3 key findings →
Design: longitudinal study
Participants: 279
Evidence: moderate
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Plasma phosphorylated tau217 has been suggested as a core biomarker for establishing a biological Alzheimer's disease diagnosis. 2 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Participants: 691
Evidence: low
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In multivariable analyses, none of the plasma biomarkers were significantly associated with cognitive impairment. 5 key findings →
Participants: 403
Evidence: low
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Original source
Although recent studies have demonstrated the prognostic utility of plasma biomarkers of Alzheimer pathology or neurodegeneration, such as pTau-181 and NF-L, whether other plasma biomarkers can further improve prediction of cognitive decline is undetermined. 5 key findings →
Design: cohort study
Participants: 60
Evidence: moderate
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We used within-group locally estimated scatterplot smoothing models to compare the trajectory of biomarker changes with age in females versus males, as well as by apolipoprotein ɛ4 carriership. 5 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Participants: 628
Evidence: low
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Sleep abnormalities are prevalent in Alzheimer's disease, with sleep quality already impaired at its preclinical stage. 4 key findings →
Design: cohort study
Participants: 1,168
Evidence: moderate
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NEFL (hazard ratio [HR] [95% confidence intervals (CIs)]: 1.54 [1.29, 1.84]) and RPS6KB1 (HR [95% CI]: 1.33 [1.16, 1.52]) were robustly associated with incident all-cause dementia; MMP12 (HR [95% CI]: 2.06 [1.41, 2.99]) was associated with vascular dementia in ELSA, after correcting for multiple testing. 3 key findings →
Design: longitudinal study
Participants: 3,249
Evidence: moderate
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Individuals with autosomal dominant frontotemporal dementia (FTD) exhibit considerable variability in disease onset and progression. 5 key findings →
Participants: 711
Evidence: moderate
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Although, anatomical disparities of the rodent medial prefrontal cortex compared to the primate homologue are apparent, current rodent models have effectively implicated the medial prefrontal cortex as a neural substrate of cognitive decline within ageing and dementia. 4 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Evidence: moderate
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There was a direct and indirect bidirectional effect through the glial fibrillary acidic protein of WMH on phosphorylated tau 217 concentration, which was associated with neurofilament light chain concentration in the entire sample. 3 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Evidence: moderate
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Original source
Reduced within-network connectivity was observed in the language network in both phenotypes, with stronger evidence of reductions in logopenic progressive aphasia compared to controls. 5 key findings →
Participants: 144
Evidence: moderate
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Original source
Digital cognitive testing using online platforms has emerged as a potentially transformative tool in clinical neuroscience. 3 key findings →
Participants: 325
Evidence: low
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Fusion of all five data modalities (n = 111) yielded two subtypes (n S1 = 53, n S2 = 58), which were nominally associated with diffuse amyloid plaques; however, this effect was not significant after correction for multiple testing. 5 key findings →
Participants: 111
Evidence: low
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Original source
A subset of participants received cognitive testing and/or the Movement Disorders Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale Part III motor exam (off medication). 18F-PI-2620 uptake was low overall in Lewy body disease and correlated with β-amyloid PET in temporal lobe regions and precuneus. 5 key findings →
Participants: 29
Evidence: low
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Previous studies have explored the associations of retinal vessel calibre, measured from retinal photographs or fundus images using semi-automated computer programs, with cognitive impairment and dementia, supporting the concept that retinal blood vessels reflect microvascular changes in the brain. 3 key findings →
Participants: 212
Evidence: low
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Original source
Higher grey matter volumes/cortical thickness and fluorodeoxyglucose uptake have been consistently found in cognitively unimpaired individuals with abnormal Alzheimer's disease biomarkers compared with those with normal biomarkers. 4 key findings →
Participants: 319
Evidence: moderate
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For amyloid positive individuals Aβ42/Aβ40, glial fibrillary acidic protein and p-tau181 were the top predictors of cognitive decline while Aβ42/Aβ40 was prominent for amyloid negative participants across all age groups. 5 key findings →
Design: cross-sectional
Participants: 1,185
Evidence: moderate
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Given that cognitive performance in the A-/T+ group was poorer than in individuals without either pathology, our results suggest that medial temporal lobe tau without cortical amyloid beta may reflect an early stage on the Alzheimer's pathological continuum. 1 key finding →
Participants: 301
Evidence: low
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Original source
How the 0–100 score works — and why some entries are capped
This is alzhub's own score. It is not an official metric, not an impact factor,
and no journal, publisher or ranking body endorses it. We built it so that a reader who is not a
scientist can tell a landmark trial from a conference abstract without having to already know the
difference. Every point comes from one of 20 components, all of them printed on the study itself,
so you can disagree with our arithmetic rather than having to trust the total.
- Journal tier up to 10 pts
- Journal's citation record up to 4 pts
- Study design up to 12 pts
- Strength of evidence up to 5 pts
- Peer-review validation up to 10 pts
- How recent up to 5 pts
- Sample size up to 4 pts
- Effect reported up to 3 pts
- Studied in people up to 3 pts
- Randomised / blinded up to 2 pts
- Times cited up to 7 pts
- Citations per year up to 5 pts
- Impact for its field and year up to 6 pts
- Cited by studies here up to 6 pts
- Still being cited up to 4 pts
- Senior author's track record up to 4 pts
- Institution's track record up to 3 pts
- Multi-centre collaboration up to 3 pts
- Indexed in PubMed up to 2 pts
- Free to read up to 2 pts
Journals are placed in ordered tiers, never given a numeric impact factor — we
could not verify current impact factors from a source we control, and an invented one would be
worse than none. Tier 1 is the top-tier general journals (NEJM, The Lancet, JAMA, Nature, Science,
Nature Medicine); tier 2 is the leading specialty journals; tier 3 is every other peer-reviewed
journal. A separate part scores how much the journal's own papers are cited, which tells the
tier-3 journals apart.
Two rules we don't bend. First, we never fill in a
missing value: if a record does not state a sample size or a design, that component scores
zero, and if we simply have no data for a part, such as a citation count, that part is left out and
the study is scored on the parts we could check. The study card says which. Second, anything that is not a peer-reviewed
article is capped at 16/100 and carries a warning chip — so a conference abstract or
a company press release can never outrank a peer-reviewed paper, no matter how good it looks.
We rank a rigorous null result — a good trial showing that something does not
work — above an early positive finding. Someone deciding whether to buy a supplement is served by
that, and the rigour is already counted by the design and journal components.
The score is computed from the published data alone and is
reproducible: the same file always yields the same numbers.
See the whole rubric drawn out →
— four charts covering all 27,380 studies: how the scores are spread and where the cap
bites, which of the 20 components the library is strong and weak on, which subjects rest on
stronger evidence, and what kinds of study each subject is actually built from.