The goal of finding clinically useful biomarkers to identify MCI patients at risk of developing Alzheimers disease has proved elusive with conflicting results reported by different centres. In Sweden, a large multicentre study has investigated the accuracy of CSF beta-amyloid(1-42), total tau protein (T-tau), and tau phosphorylated at position threonine 181 (P-tau) (Mattsson et al. JAMA 2009; 302: 385-393).