title: Neuritic plaques in the Lewy body variant of Alzheimer disease lack paired helical filaments.
abstract: The Lewy body variant of Alzheimer disease (LBV) is a distinct category of dementia which, unlike pure diffuse Lewy body disease (DLBD), meets clinical and neuropathologic criteria for Alzheimer disease (AD) but differs from pure AD in having a neocortical predominance of diffuse and neuritic plaques (NP), with very few neurofibrillary tangles (NFT). We investigated the immunoreactivity of NP with a monoclonal antibody against paired helical filaments (PHF) composed of phosphorylated microtubule associated protein tau. With routine thioflavin-S preparations, 12 LBV and 14 AD cases had similar numbers of NP, but the LBV had significantly (P < 0.05) fewer NFT per microscopic field in the midfrontal cortex. Among subjects with midfrontal NFT, 81-84% of NP in AD and LBV were anti-PHF positive. Among subjects without midfrontal NFT, 52% of NP in AD but only 12% of NP in LBV cases were anti-PHF positive (P < 0.05). LBV differs from AD in that its NP generally do not contain PHF, unless they are accompanied by neocortical NFT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, USA.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Samuel
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Crowder
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Hofstetter
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hansen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D016631:Lewy Bodies / Q000473:pathology*; D016501:Neurites / Q000473:pathology*; D010766:Phosphorylation; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D016875:tau Proteins