A retrospective analysis of 2650 ADNI participants compared plasma glial markers (GFAP, sTREM2) and vascular or endothelial markers (VEGF, sICAM-1, sVCAM-1) across cognitively unimpaired people, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's dementia. GFAP rose stepwise across the groups, 56.3% higher in dementia with an area under the curve of 0.82, while sTREM2 overlapped and the vascular markers discriminated weakly (AUC 0.61-0.63). GFAP also rose 4.50% a year in unimpaired participants, with no difference in that rate by diagnosis.
Why it is interesting: It bears on which blood markers could support earlier case-finding in dementia, and on how much of an apparent signal is shared across diagnostic groups.