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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Lancet Neurol. 2021 Apr 29;20(6):484–496. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(21)00066-1

Table 1:

Details of successive proposed criteria for Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis

NINCDS–ADRDA (1984)2 IWG (2007)3 IWG (2010)4 NIA–AA (2011)5,6 IWG (2014)7 IWG–AA (2016)8 NIA–AA (2018)1 IWG (2021)
Applicable settings Research and clinical Research Research Research and clinical Research Research Research Research and clinical
Clinical requirements Dementia (memory changes and another cognitive impairment) Amnestic syndrome of a hippocampal type Amnestic syndrome of a hippocampal type, posterior cortical variant, logopenic variant, or behavioural–frontal variant Mild cognitive impairment (amnestic or non-amnestic) or dementia Amnestic syndrome of a hippocampal type, posterior cortical variant, logopenic variant, or behavioural– frontal variant None None Amnestic variant, posterior cortical atrophy, logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia, behavioural or dysexecutive frontal variant, corticobasal syndrome, semantic and nonfluent variants of primary progressive aphasias*
Biological requirements None CSF biomarkers, MRI atrophy, 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET hypometabolism, amyloid PET positive, or Alzheimer’s disease autosomal dominant mutation Pathophysiological markers: CSF changes (low CSF Aβ42, high phosphorylated tau, or high total tau) or amyloid PET positive Amyloid β marker (CSF or PET) or marker of degeneration (CSF tau, phosphorylated tau, 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-PET, and T1-weighted MRI) CSF amyloid β and tau or amyloid PET positive Amyloid β marker (CSF or PET) and tau marker (CSF or PET) Amyloid β marker (CSF or PET) and tau marker (CSF or PET) Amyloid β marker (CSF or PET) and tau marker (CSF or PET)

ADRDA=Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association (now the Alzheimer’s Association) Work Group. IWG=International Working Group criteria. IWG–AA=International Working Group and Alzheimer’s Association joint criteria. NIA–AA=US National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer’s Association joint criteria. NINCDS=US National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke criteria.

*

Cognitively unimpaired individuals are considered at-risk for Alzheimer’s Disease.