Pathological Changes of von Economo Neuron and Fork Neuron in Neuropsychiatric Diseases / 中国医学科学院学报

von Economo neuron (VEN) is a bipolar neuron characterized by a large spindle-shaped soma. VEN is generally distributed in the layer V of anterior insular lobe and anterior cingulate cortex. Fork neuron is another featured bipolar neuron. In recent years,many studies have illustrated that VEN and fork neurons are correlated with complicated cognition such as self-consciousness and social emotion. Studies in the development and morpholigies of these two neurons as well as their pathological changes in various neurological and psychiatric disorders have found that the abnormal number and functions of VEN can cause corresponding dysfunctions in social recognition and emotions both during the neuro-developmental stages of childhood and during the nerve degeneration in old age stage. Therefore, more attentions should be paid on the research of VEN and fork neurons in neuropsychiatric diseases.

Awareness Status of Chronic Disabling Neurological Diseases among Elderly Veterans / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>The awareness, treatment and prevention of chronic diseases are generally poor among the elderly population of China, whereas the prevention and control of chronic diseases in elderly veteran communities have been ongoing for more than 30 years. Therefore, investigating the awareness status of chronic disabling neurological diseases (CDND) and common chronic diseases (CCD) among elderly veterans may provide references for related programs among the elderly in the general population.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A cross-sectional survey was conducted among veterans ≥60 years old in veteran communities in Beijing. The awareness of preventive strategies against dementia, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), sleep disorders, cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and CCD such as hypertension, and the approaches used to access this information, including media, word of mouth (verbal communication among the elderly) and health care professionals, were investigated via face-to-face interviews.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The awareness rates for CCD and CVD were approximately 100%, but that for AD was the lowest at <10%. The awareness rates for sleep disorders, PD and dementia, were 51.0-89.4%. Media was the most commonly selected mode of communication by which veterans acquired knowledge about CCD and CVD. Media was used by approximately 80% of veterans. Both health care professionals and word of mouth were used by approximately 50% of veterans. With respect to the source of information about CDND excluding AD, the rates of the use of health care professionals, word of mouth and media were 10.6-28.2%, 56.5-76.5%, and approximately 50%, respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The awareness of CDND among elderly veterans was significantly lower than that of CCD. More information about CDND should be disseminated by health care professionals. Appropriate guidance will promote the rapid and extensive dissemination of information about the prevention of CDND by media and word-of-mouth peer education.</p>

Conflict processing of the frontal cortex and aging change: event-related potentials study / 中国应用生理学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the working mechanism and age-related change of the conflict processing system of the frontal cortex.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Fifteen normal elderly people and 15 youth were performed a modified Eriksen flanker paradigm, while event-related potential (ERPs), which include 32 systerm electroencephalography, reaction time and correct rate were recorded.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The elderly group showed a distinct effect of reaction time and effect of conflict in the respond level compared with the youth group. The elderly group had a longer time window of N380 and same amplitude as the youth group. Low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) showed the bilateral temporal lobe and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (especially right) were activated in the youth group, while the left temporal lobe, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and left medial frontal gyrus were activated in the elderly group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>When conflict stimuli existed in the response level, old people showed frontal interference control hypofunction. N380 reflected the activation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the left temporal lobe during response selection and executive control processing in older people.</p>

Expression of tau-related protein in spinal cord of patients with Alzheimer's disease / 中华病理学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the expression of tau-related protein in spinal cord of Chinese patients with Alzheimer's disease.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Gallays-Braak stain and immunohistochemical study for tau protein (AT8) were carried out in the spinal cord tissue (T2, T8, T10, L2 and S2 segments) of 3 Chinese patients with Alzheimer's disease. Seven age-matched cases without evidence of dementia or neurologic disease were used as controls.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Neurofibrillary tangles were identified in the neurons of anterior horn in 2 Alzheimer's disease cases but none was observed in the controls. Tau-positive axons and astroglia were detected in all Alzheimer's disease cases. Tau immunoreactivity in spinal cord of the patients correlated with that in brain tissue.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The expression of tau-related protein is demonstrated in the spinal cord of Alzheimer's disease patients suggesting that axonal transport defect may play a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.</p>

A case-control study of risk factors in mild cognitive impairment / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the risk factors of mild cognitive impairment (MCI).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A case-control study including 97 MCI patients and 143 cognitive normal controls (NC) in Chinese PLA General Hospital was conducted. The cases and controls were matched for age, gender and occupation. The relationship between MCI and various factors was analysed by univariate and multivariate analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Results data from univariate analysis showed that the history of coronary heart diseases, stroke, anaemia, and the education level had significant differences between NC and MCI patients. Multivariate analysis confirmed that the history of coronary heart diseases, stroke, anaemia and the education level were significantly related to MCI and their ORs (95% confidence interval) were 2.21 (1.18 - 4.14), 2.18 (1.20 - 3.98), 4.63 (1.79 - 11.97), 0.75 (0.58 - 0.97) respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The history of coronary heart diseases, stroke and anaemia were independent risk factors of MCI and high education level seemed to be a protective factor of MCI.</p>

Glial abnormalities in progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal degeneration / 中华病理学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study pathologic features of glial cells in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD) and to explore their pathologic significance.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Brain tissues from 2 cases with PSP and 3 cases with CBD, all confirmed by autopsies, were examined by routine neuropathologic methods, Gallyas-Braak staining and tau immunostaining. Brain tissues from 6 Alzheimer's disease cases, 4 cases with Parkinson's disease and 6 elderly with no neurologic abnormality were used as controls.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Gallyas-Braak staining demonstrated tuft-shaped astrocytes and coiled-body oligodendroglial cells in the brain tissues of 2 cases with PSP and 3 cases with CBD. The tuft-shaped astrocytes appeared prominently in the frontal and parietal cortex, basal ganglia and grey matter of the brainstem. The coiled-body oligodendroglial cells were distributed widely in the white matter of the frontal and parietal lobes, basal ganglia, brainstem and cerebellum. However, astrocytic plaques, composed of degenerative stubby processes with radiating arrangement, only appeared in the frontal, parietal and cingular cortex, as well as in the striatum of 3 cases with CBD. The astrocytic plaques and tuft-shaped astrocytes coexisted in the same areas, including parietal and cingular cortex and striatum, in CBD. All these glial abnormalities showed tau-positive immunoreaction not found in control cases.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The tuft-shaped astrocytes and coiled-body oligodendroglial cells are common glial morphologic features of both PSP and CBD. Astrocytic plaques are also characteristically seen in CBD.</p>

Pathologic diagnosis of non-Alzheimer type dementia / 中华病理学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To characterize histopathologic features of non-Alzheimer type dementia.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Bodian, Gallyas-Braak silver staining, tau and ubiquitin immunohistochemistry were applied in an analysis of 22 cases of autopsy-proven neurodegenerative dementia. Appearance, distribution and immunoreactivity of neuronal and glial inclusions in the brain were observed. The final histological diagnoses were made according to the pathological criteria for several types of common non-Alzheimer type dementia.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Among the 22 cases of neurodegenerative dementia, 12 cases were identified as non-Alzheimer type dementia, including Pick's disease (2 cases), progressive supranuclear palsy (3 cases) and corticobasal degeneration (3 cases), dementia with Lewy bodies (1 case), and Parkinson's disease (3 cases). Another 10 cases consisted of pure Alzheimer's disease (AD, 9 cases) and AD combined with argyrophilic grain disease (1 case). Characteristic neuronal and glial inclusions, such as classical and cortical Lewy body, Pick body, Globous NFTs, astrocytic plaque and tufted astrocyte, argyrophilic grain were found in the brains of non-Alzheimer type dementia. Classical and cortical Lewy bodies were not argyrophilic but were immunoreactive to ubiquitin. Pick bodies, Globous NFTs, astrocytic plaques, tufted astrocytes and argyrophilic grains were all argyrophilic. Pick bodies showed tau and ubiquitin immunoreactivity. However, Globous NFTs, astrocytic plaques, tufted astrocytes, and argyrophilic grains were reactive only to tau immunohistochemistry.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Findings of characteristic neuronal and glial inclusions may help to differentiate non-Alzheimer type dementia from AD, and in conjunction with Gallyas-Braak staining and immunohistochemistry for tau and ubiquitin, to further define histopathologic subcategories of non-Alzheimer type dementia.</p>

Neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia and elderly people in the community: results from the Beijing Dementia Cooperative Study / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To determine the prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia and normal elderly people living in the Chinese community of Beijing.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A cross-sectional study derived from the Beijing Dementia Cooperative Study was carried out a population survey was carried out on a total of 1540 participants aged 65 years and older living in Beijing city and rural areas. All the individuals and 373 demented elderly people completed a series of neuropsychological examination and the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Among the dementia participants, 49.33% had exhibited neuropsychiatric symptoms (35.66% rated as clinically significant), in which 80.4% reported 2 or more disturbances, with depression (23.86%), apathy (21.72%) and anxiety (20.38%) being most common. Of the 1540 normal individuals, 18.25% of them exhibited neuropsychiatric symptoms (6.49% rated as clinically significant), in which 53% reported 2 or more disturbances, with sleepless (10%), depression (8.9%) and anxiety (6.97%) being the most common.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>To our knowledge, this was the first multi-center study on neuropsychiatric disturbances in dementia and cognitive normal elderly people. Neuropsychiatric symptoms occurred mainly in persons with dementia and of clinical severity. Though the neuropsychiatric disturbances reported in cognitive normal individuals were lower and less serious compared to dementia, they should not be neglected. These finding suggested that a screening programme focusing on identifying these symptoms should be included in the physician's diagnostic tools for dementia.</p>

Morphological and quantatitive capillary changes in aging human brain / 中国医学科学院学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate morphological changes of capillary in aging brain and explore the role of vascular factor in brain aging.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Twenty-eight brains of individuals (mean age 65 years) who died without clinical or pathological involvement of nervous system and 6 brains of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (mean age 83 years) were obtained at autopsy. Sections from frontal lobe, occipital lobe, striatum and hippocampus of normal subjects and sections from hippocampus of AD patients were used for hematoxylin eosin (HE), lox fast blue (LFB), toluidine blue stains and ulex europaeus agglutinin (UEA) immunostaining. After observations of morphological changes of neuron and capillary, computer-aid image analysis was performed to quantify numerical density and area density of neuron and capillary in frontal lobe, occipital lobe, putamen, CA3 sector of normal subjects and CA3 sector of AD patients. Numerical ratio and area ratio of neuron and capillary were then calculated. Correlations between neuron/capillary ratio and age were estimated using Pearson's correlation test. Difference of neuron/capillary ratio in CA3 sectors between AD patients and advanced aged normal subjects (> 75 years) was analyzed with Student's t-test.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Several pathological microvascular changes, including increased tortuosity, looping, bundling, stringing, and effacement of endothelia were seen in aged subjects and more prevalent in AD patients. Numerical ratio and area ratio of neuron and capillary of frontal lobe, occipital lobe and putamen significantly increased with age in normal aging subjects.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Morphological changes and relative decrease in number and capacity of capillary in aging brain may reduce cerebral blood flow and metabolism, and consequently result in functional impairment of aging brain. Vascular factors may play an important role in the development of brain aging.</p>

THREE CASES OF PICK′S DISEASE:A CLINICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS / 解放军医学杂志

Three cases of Pick's disease diagnosed by clinical observation, MRI, SPECT, PET and pathology were analysed. Compared with Alzheimer′s disease, Pick's disease consisted of the following features: ①The changes in personality, judgement, affection and emotion, Kl?ver Bucy syndrome, progressive non fluent aphasia,and the defect of semantic memory were prominent in the early stage, but the disturbance of cognition and visuospatial ability were relatively late. ②Marked cerebral atrophy in the temporal pole was showed in MRI. ③Hypoperfusion and hypometabolism could be found in the frontal and / or temporal cortexes on SPECT or PET scans. It is important to understand the salient features for early diagnosis of Pick's disease in clinic.