title: Staging of Lewy-related pathology in dementia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Lewy-related pathology is the characteristic feature of Parkinson's disease with and without dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). There are two neuropathological staging systems for Lewy-related pathology commonly employed today: the staging system for Parkinson-related pathology by Braak et al., and the staging system by the Consortium on DLB. There are also several modified systems based on these two scales.
  
  
  METHODS
  We applied a total of eight different staging systems for Lewy-related pathology to 36 consecutive demented patients with various dementia disorders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The staging systems varied considerably in number of unclassifiable cases (range 0 – 16 out of 36 cases), while the diagnostic agreement between the systems that were able to classify all or the very majority of cases varied only slightly (weighted κ 0.86 – 0.92 and Spearman's σ 0.80 – 1.0).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The different staging systems for Lewy-related pathology that exist today vary in staging procedure and proportion of unclassifiable cases. The choice of system may affect the stage of Lewy-related pathology and ultimately final diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Lund University and Regional Laboratories Region Skåne, Lund, Sweden. hans.brunnstrom@med.lu.se
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brunnström
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lindberg
authors.forename: Elisabet
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Englund
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016631:Lewy Bodies / Q000473:pathology*; D020961:Lewy Body Disease / Q000145:classification* / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged