As a PSP-ologist, it takes a lot to discourage me, but the excellent review of CSF markers in the diagnosis of PSP did it. Nadia Magdalinou, Andrew Lees and Henrik Zetterberg of University College London, writing in the JNNP, point out that no CSF measure has been consistently or reproducibly found to differentiate PSP from all of the relevant competing diagnostic considerations.
An excellent study cited in the review found low levels of CSF α-synuclein in Parkinson’s, DLB and MSA relative to PSP and other brain disorders. A value less than 1.6 pg/μl had good (91%) positive predictive value for any synucleinopathy but higher concentrations had poor (20%) negative predictive value.  So that measure is of some small value.
Neurofilament light chain in CSF is elevated in PSP, MSA and CBD, according to another study, with an area under the ROC curve of 0.93. This has been confirmed by others since. This is useful in distinguishing PSP from PD, but when your patient has a poor levodopa response and downgaze problems, PD isn’t really the issue; PSP, MSA and CBD are.
One study of neurofilament heavy chain found that it can differentiate PSP from CBD but not from MSA. That study was published in 2006 and we’re still awaiting confirmation.
You’d think that tau would be the object of intense scrutiny in the differential diagnosis of PSP by CSF, but there’s been relatively little on that. One good study found that the ratio of phospho-tau to total tau is lower in PSP and MSA than in PD. The other studies of phospho-tau in PSP have been negative.
So the winner so far for PSP, limping across the finish line, seems to be neurofilament light chain. It’s not available commercially as far as I can tell; nor should it be, without further study.
Adding to this discouraging picture is the fact that most or all of the studies of CSF markers in PSP have sampled patients in a stage of PSP that allowed clinical diagnosis. By that time, the CSF picture may be more diagnostic than in the earlier stages, when a state marker would be most useful. In other words, the studies were retrospective rather than prospective.
For now, I’m putting my money on imaging.