RESUMO
Genetic factors are important in Alzheimer disease (AD) and Parkinson disease but have not been well characterized in Lewy body dementia (LBD). The authors obtained family history in patients from an autopsy series of AD and LBD and in living healthy controls. A family history of dementia was more common in both LBD and AD compared with controls, suggesting that genetic factors are as important in LBD as they are in AD.
Assuntos
Demência/epidemiologia , Demência/genética , Predisposição Genética para Doença/epidemiologia , Predisposição Genética para Doença/genética , Doença por Corpos de Lewy/epidemiologia , Doença por Corpos de Lewy/genética , Medição de Risco/métodos , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Família , Feminino , Florida/epidemiologia , Heterozigoto , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Linhagem , Prevalência , Fatores de RiscoRESUMO
The authors assessed the frequency of spinal cord alpha-synuclein pathology in neurologically asymptomatic individuals older than 60 years of age (N = 106). Using alpha-synuclein immunohistochemistry, nine cases (8%) had incidental Lewy neurites in the intermediolateral column and at least some alpha-synuclein pathology in the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus, locus ceruleus, and central raphe nucleus. Sparse alpha-synuclein pathology was also detected in the substantia nigra, basal forebrain, amygdala, or cortex in all but two cases.
Assuntos
Encéfalo/patologia , Neurônios/patologia , Medula Espinal/patologia , alfa-Sinucleína/análise , Idoso , Humanos , Corpos de Lewy/patologia , Prontuários Médicos , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Neurônios Motores/patologiaRESUMO
Ballooned neurones (BNs) are one of the pathological hallmarks of several neurodegenerative diseases, including Pick's disease, corticobasal degeneration and argyrophilic grain disease (AGD). They have also been described in Alzheimer disease (AD), but the frequency of BNs in AD has not been systematically addressed. In the present study, immunohistochemistry for alphaB-crystallin was used as a sensitive method to detect BNs to determine the frequency of BNs in the limbic lobe in AD. At least a few BNs were detected in the limbic lobe of virtually all AD cases, and their density correlated with Braak stage, as well as the density of neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques in the limbic lobe. The density of BN tended to be greater in AD cases with concurrent AGD than in pure AD. Given the high prevalence of AD in brain banks for neurodegenerative disease and the frequent presence of BNs in these areas with alphaB-crystallin immunohistochemistry, the present findings further indicate that BNs confined to the limbic lobe lack specificity in diagnostic neuropathology.
