Cerebrospinal fluid tau concentrations in HIV infected patients with suspected neurological disease

Alison J E Green¹, Gavin Giovannoni¹, Margaret A Hall-Craggs², Ed J Thompson¹ and Robert F Miller³

¹ Department of Neuroimmunology, Institute of Neurology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK
² MRI Unit, Department of Imaging, University College London Hospitals, Middlesex Hospital Site, London W1N 8AA, UK
³ Department of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Royal Free and University College Medical School, University College London and Mortimer Market Centre, Camden and Islington Community Health Services Trust, London WC1E 6AU, UK

Correspondence to:
Dr R Miller, Department of STD, RFUCMS, Mortimer Market Centre, Off Capper Street, London WC1E 6AU, UKrmiller{at}gum.ucl.ac.uk

Objectives: To measure cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tau in HIV infected patients with acute neurological episodes and to correlate the findings with the type and severity of neurological disease.

Methods: CSF tau was prospectively measured in 76 consecutive HIV infected patients admitted to a specialist unit at UCL Hospitals, London, for investigation of acute neurological episodes: the results were compared with the clinical diagnoses.

Results: 24 patients had HIV associated dementia complex (HADC), 10 had lymphoma (including four with primary CNS lymphoma), 20 had cerebral infections (including five with CMV encephalitis, five with VZV infection, seven with cryptococcal meningitis, two with toxoplasmosis, and one with progressive multifocal leucoencephalopathy); 22 patients had miscellaneous conditions, including nine with self limiting headache/fever. 62 patients (82%) had normal CSF tau concentration and 14 patients (18%) had elevated tau. In those with HADC, there was no correlation between the degree of dementia or atrophy on magnetic resonance imaging and CSF tau. Elevated CSF tau was associated with poor outcome as six of eight patients who died within 4 weeks of lumbar puncture had elevated tau (p=0.0024, two tailed Fisher's exact test).

Conclusions: CSF tau levels are not elevated in the majority of HIV infected patients presenting with acute neurological episodes. CSF tau levels show no correlation with severity of dementia/atrophy on magnetic resonance imaging. Although elevated CSF tau was observed in some patients with conditions causing cerebral necrosis, the finding did not delineate underlying pathology but was associated with poor outcome.

Key Words: tau; AIDS; cerebrospinal fluid; dementia; magnetic resonance imaging

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