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Tau imaging: early progress and future directions
Villemagne VL, Fodero-Tavoletti MT, Masters CL, Rowe CC.. The Lancet. Neurology, 2015-01-01
Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis
Use of selective in-vivo tau imaging will enable improved understanding of tau aggregation in the brain, facilitating research into causes, diagnosis, and treatment of major tauopathies such as Alzheimer's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal syndrome, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and some variants of frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Neuropathological studies of Alzheimer's disease show a strong association between tau deposits, decreased cognitive function, and neurodegenerative changes. Selective tau imaging will allow the in-vivo exploration of such associations and measure the global and regional changes in tau deposits over time. Such imaging studies will comprise non-invasive assessment of the spatial and temporal pattern of tau deposition over time, providing insight into the role tau plays in ageing and helping to establish the relation between cognition, genotype, neurodegeneration, and other biomarkers. Once validated, selective tau imaging might be useful as a diagnostic, prognostic, and progression biomarker, and a surrogate marker for the monitoring of efficacy and patient recruitment for anti-tau therapeutic trials.
Key findings
- Use of selective in-vivo tau imaging will enable improved understanding of tau aggregation in the brain, facilitating research into causes, diagnosis, and treatment of major tauopathies such as Alzheimer's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal syndrome, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and some variants of frontotemporal lobar degeneration.
- Neuropathological studies of Alzheimer's disease show a strong association between tau deposits, decreased cognitive function, and neurodegenerative changes.
- Selective tau imaging will allow the in-vivo exploration of such associations and measure the global and regional changes in tau deposits over time.
- Such imaging studies will comprise non-invasive assessment of the spatial and temporal pattern of tau deposition over time, providing insight into the role tau plays in ageing and helping to establish the relation between cognition, genotype, neurodegeneration, and other biomarkers.
- Once validated, selective tau imaging might be useful as a diagnostic, prognostic, and progression biomarker, and a surrogate marker for the monitoring of efficacy and patient recruitment for anti-tau therapeutic trials.
Why it matters
This 2015 review looks ahead to brain scans that can show the protein tau in living people, across Alzheimer's disease and other "tauopathies" such as progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal syndrome, chronic traumatic encephalopathy and some forms of frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Post-mortem studies had linked tau deposits to poorer thinking and to brain degeneration, and the authors argue that tau imaging would let researchers track where and how fast tau builds up over time. They say that only "once validated" might it become a test for diagnosis, prognosis or disease progression, or a tool for anti-tau drug trials; the review itself reports no new patient data and tests no treatment.
Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 56/100
Published in a leading specialty journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 9 / 10 | Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (The Lancet. Neurology) |
| Journal's citation record | 3 / 4 | The Lancet Neurology: journal h-index 457 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 1 / 5 | 2015 — within 20 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 6 / 7 | Cited 503 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 4 / 5 | 38.7 citations a year over 13 year(s) since 2015 |
| Impact for its field and year | 6 / 6 | Cited 40.4× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 4 / 6 | Cited by 40 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 3 / 4 | Cited 53 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 4 / 4 | Last-listed author Christopher Cleon Rowe: h-index 100 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 1 / 3 | The University of Melbourne: institution h-index 1,342 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 2 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 4 institution(s) in 1 country |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 25496902) |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Total | 56 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
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Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Villemagne, V. L., Fodero-Tavoletti, M. T., Masters, C. L., & Rowe, C. C. (2015). Tau imaging: early progress and future directions. The Lancet. Neurology. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(14)70252-2
Vancouver
Villemagne VL, Fodero-Tavoletti MT, Masters CL, Rowe CC. Tau imaging: early progress and future directions. The Lancet. Neurology. 2015. doi:10.1016/s1474-4422(14)70252-2. PMID: 25496902.
BibTeX
@article{villemagne2015-25496902,
author = {Villemagne, V. L. and Fodero-Tavoletti, M. T. and Masters, C. L. and Rowe, C. C.},
title = {{Tau imaging: early progress and future directions}},
journal = {The Lancet. Neurology},
year = {2015},
doi = {10.1016/s1474-4422(14)70252-2},
pmid = {25496902},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(14)70252-2}
}
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