[A comparative study on histopathological findings between Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia of Alzheimer type]

Abstract

Histopathological findings of the brains in 2 cases of Alzheimer's disease (AD) were comparatively studied with those in 2 cases of senile dementia of Alzheimer's type (SDAT). Marked atrophy of the temporal lobe, most conspicuous at the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex was commonly observed in all 4 cases. Microscopic examination revealed in the AD cases various forms of senile plaques including those of primitive type or ones with an amyloid core, while plaques in the cases of SDAT were mostly composed of non-typical forms without an amyloid core. The senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) were widely distributed in the neocortices such as in the frontal, parietal and occipital lobes as well as in the hippocampal and parahippocampal gyri in the cases of AD, while the density of SPs in the neocortices was lower than that in the hippocampal and parahippocampal gyri, and NFTs were scarcely observed in the neocortices in the cases of SDAT. This suggests that we should histopathologically differentiate SDAT from AD, although we found no marked macroscopic differences between the AD brain and SDAT brain.