[Acetylcholinesterase activity in CSF in senile dementia of Alzheimer type, vascular dementia, and Parkinson's disease]

Abstract

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity was measured in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from 25 patients with senile dementia of Alzheimer type (SDAT), 11 patients with vascular dementia (VD), 26 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), and 30 normal controls. AChE activity also was measured in 46 normal subjects whose ages ranged from 15 to 85 to evaluate the effect of age on AChE activity. CSF AChE activity for the SDAT, VD and PD groups showed no significant difference compared with the value for the control group. However, there were significant decreases in CSF AChE activity in the VD and PD groups with the development of ventricular enlargement. There was no significant correlation between CSF AChE activity decrease and ventricular enlargement in the SDAT group. AChE activity increased significantly over the age range of 15 to 85. These results suggest that, although CSF AChE activity is not a useful parameter in the diagnosis of dementia, it may be a marker indicating abnormalities of the intracerebral cholinergic system during the process of cerebral atrophy.