Alzheimer's disease in the old and the young

✍ Scribed by Luke Han; D. Peter Birkett

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 543 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/gps.930080605

✦ Synopsis

This study concerns differences between Alzheimer's disease in the old and the young. Literature differentiating Alzheimer's disease from 'senile dementia' is reviewed. Two groups of mental hospital patients with Alzheimer brain changes at autopsy are compared. They comprised the 17 oldest and 17 youngest of the 56 patients with definite Alzheimer changes in a series of 212 consecutive autopsies. The younger group had been first hospitalized at later ages than the older group, and were more likely to have been demented at admission. The older group had mostly been diagnosed as schizophrenic (mainly paranoid) on admission. Neuropathologically the younger group showed more severe Alzheimer changes of all kinds. The changes in the older group tended to be limited to the hippocampus, whereas in the younger group they showed extension into the frontal and occipital cortex and were also found in subcortical gray matter. Lipofuscin was more abundant in the older group, so that a discrepancy between very severe Alzheimer changes and less abundant lipofuscin characterizes the younger cases.

KEY woms-Alzheimer's disease, young, schizophrenia. paranoia. hpofuscin. hippocampus.