Elsevier

Neurobiology of Aging

Volume 17, Issue 3, May–June 1996, Pages 365-371
Neurobiology of Aging

Article
Neuropathology in controls and demented subjects from the Baltimore longitudinal study of aging

https://doi.org/10.1016/0197-4580(96)00028-0Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open archive

Abstract

To establish correlations among cognitive states and neuropathology, we have examined 22 subjects (69–97 years of age) from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), of whom 15 had normal and stable cognitive performances and seven had dementia of variable severity. In the majority of normal subjects, few or no β-amyloid (Aβ) deposits or senile plaques (SP) were present in the neocortex, but neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) were consistently found in CA1 of hippocampus and layer II of entorhinal cortex. In two (15%) normal individuals, the densities of SP were consistent with the diagnosis of possible Alzheimer's disease (AD). We speculate that these cases with normal cognitive states and abundant neocortical SP may represent preclinical AD. We conclude that the neocortex of a majority of cognitively intact individuals can remain free of Aβ deposits or SP, even into the tenth decade of life.

Keywords

Aging
Alzheimer's disease
β-Amyloid protein
Senile plaques

Cited by (0)