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Conditions of Alzheimer‐type dementia in the old‐old and oldest‐old patients with special reference to extreme conditions of brain aging
Author(s) -
Mizutani Toshio,
Nakamura Kenichi,
Enomoto Mutsuo,
Sakata Masuhiro,
Yamada Shigeo
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
neuropathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.701
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1440-1789
pISSN - 0919-6544
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1789.1998.tb00083.x
Subject(s) - dementia , senile plaques , autopsy , pathological , medicine , pathology , hippocampal formation , alzheimer's disease , lesion , disease
A neuropathological study on 1540 consecutive autopsy brains ranging from 60 to 107 years of age revealed the following points. (1) Of the of the demented cases of the plaque‐predominant type, 93% were complicated with multiple tiny cortical infarcts. They showed a tendency for dementia to develop before or after the appearance or worsening of a systemic disorder such as cardiovascular disease, respiratory infection and cancer. However, there was no case showing Alzheimer‐type dementia (ATD). (2) The plaque‐predominant type might be an extreme condition of brain aging in terms of senile plaques (SP). It is likely that although the pathological appearance of SP alone is not responsible for dementia, its coexistence with multiple cortical infarcts could be the cause of dementia. Therefore, this type should be distinguished from ATD. (3) Primary hippocampal degeneration could also be an extreme condition of brain aging in terms of neurofibrillary tangles. This condition was different pathologically from the hippocampal lesion in ATD. (4) Several characteristics of old‐old and oldest‐old patients were clarified.