title: Clinical features of argyrophilic grain disease: a retrospective survey of cases with neuropsychiatric symptoms.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although argyrophilic grain disease (AGD) appears common in post-mortem series, its clinical features are not widely known. The aim of this study was to explore such clinical features in neuropathologically-confirmed AGD cases.
  
  
  METHODS
  After completing a neuropathological assessment of 386 patients, 33 cases (8.5%) were diagnosed as having AGD; 10 were diagnosed as "pure" cases. These subjects had been admitted to geriatric wards of mental hospitals because of behavioral or neuropsychiatric symptoms requiring medical management. Assessment of the clinical features of the pure cases was based on the evaluations in medical records.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The average age at onset was 82.2 years. Amnesia was the most common initial symptom; irritability and agitation were also common as initial symptoms. During the course of the illness, irritability was the most frequently observed, followed by delusions (mostly delusions of persecution), dysphoria, and then agitation, and apathy. In contrast to the severity of amnesia, other cognitive functions were relatively spared, and the sensorimotor symptoms were not remarkable.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  AGD is a late-onset dementing disorder clinically characterized by amnesia, with other cognitive functions relatively spared, and prominent neuropsychiatric features. These features may correlate with the high level of AGD seen in limbic structures. Future studies are needed to elucidate whether these features are common to all AGD patients or to a clinical subtype with neuropsychiatric symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yokohama City University School of Medicine, 3-9 Fukuura, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama 236-0004, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Togo
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Isojima
authors.forename: Hiroyasu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Akatsu
authors.forename: Kyoko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Hirotake
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Uchikado
authors.forename: Omi
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Katsuse
authors.forename: Eizo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Iseki
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kosaka
authors.forename: Yoshio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hirayasu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D000647:Amnesia / Q000150:complications* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D001284:Atrophy / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007508:Irritable Mood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016874:Neurofibrillary Tangles / Q000473:pathology; D011595:Psychomotor Agitation / Q000150:complications* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D016875:tau Proteins