title: Brainstem and cortical Lewy bodies in patients presenting clinically with Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: In order to study the clinical overlap between neuropathologically defined Lewy body disease (LBD) and Alzheimer's disease, we examined the brains of 37 demented and 13 non-demented subjects. Nigral Lewy bodies (LBs) were present in 16/37 dementia patients, 13 of which had LBD. Eight of these 13 were clinically indistinguishable from AD patients, and in these cases isocortical neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) formation was rare. Thus, although the two conditions were clinically similar in this series, LBD could be distinguished from AD pathologically not only by the presence of nigral LBs but also by the relative paucity of isocortical NFTs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160-7410, USA. ksantacruz@kumc.edu
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: SantaCruz
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Tasaki
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: C W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Cotman
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000473:pathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016631:Lewy Bodies / Q000473:pathology; D020961:Lewy Body Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D016874:Neurofibrillary Tangles / Q000473:pathology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D058225:Plaque, Amyloid / Q000473:pathology; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000473:pathology