Glial fibrillary acidic protein in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with dementia.

Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) is the structural protein of the astroglial intermediate filament that forms the morphological basis of astrogliosis. In the present study, GFAP concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid were measured in patients with various dementia diseases. A significant correlation between GFAP and age was found both in the total dementia group and in the controls. Covariance analysis with GFAP as dependent variable and age and albumin ratio as covariates followed by multiple group comparisons showed that, with regard to GFAP levels, the controls (n = 39) differed significantly from the patients with vascular dementia (n = 20; p < 0.05), senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (n = 29; p < 0.05), and 'pure' Alzheimer's disease (n = 8; p < 0.05), but not from those with frontal lobe dementia (n = 5).