Plasma total‐tau as a biomarker of stroke risk in the community

by Matthew P. Pase, Jayandra J. Himali, Hugo J. Aparicio, Jose Rafael Romero, Claudia L. Satizabal, Pauline Maillard, Charles DeCarli, Alexa S. Beiser, Sudha Seshadri via Annals of Neurology

Abstract

Higher plasma total‐tau level is associated with incident dementia but its relationship with stroke risk is unknown. In this prospective community‐based study, we evaluated plasma total‐tau level as a biomarker of stroke risk in 2794 Framingham Heart Study participants. Persons with plasma total‐tau levels in the top quintile, versus the bottom four, had an increased risk of incident stroke over a mean follow‐up of 8.3 years (Hazard Ratio, 2.01; 95% Confidence Interval, 1.32‐3.08) following adjustments for age, sex, and stroke risk factors. Our findings demonstrate that plasma total‐tau relates to the risk of stroke in a community sample.