0000000000008369
AUTHOR
Lutz M. Drach
HIGH PROPORTION OF DEMENTIA WITH LEWY BODIES IN THE POSTMORTEMS OF A MENTAL HOSPITAL IN GERMANY
Objective. Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is under-recognized in Germany. No data on the number of patients suffering from this condition in Germany are available at present. We were interested in the proportion of DLB in the postmortems of demented inpatients in the care of a psychogeriatric service. Design. In a retrospective study we examined consecutive postmortems of inpatients who died in one mental hospital. Setting. A suburban and rural old age psychiatry service in Germany. Patients. 103 consecutive postmortems had been performed from 9/1987 to 6/1995. Fifty-nine (57.3%) of all cases warranted the clinical diagnosis of dementia (DSM-III-R). Measures. The causes of dementia were ex…
The Lipofuscin Content of Nerve Cells of the Inferior Olivary Nucleus in Alzheimer's Disease
Lipofuscin, the age pigment, is of interest in Alzheimer's disease because of its property to accumulate in neurons and because of the hypothesis that Alzheimer's dementia is a kind of premature ageing. The amount of intraneuronal lipofuscin in the inferior olivary nucleus of 20 brains from patients with histologically confirmed Alzheimer's disease according to the CERAD protocol and of 20 controls has been measured microfluorometrically. Patients and controls were matched for age. The amount of lipofuscin in the neurons of the inferior olivary nucleus did not differ significantly between the cases of Alzheimer's disease and the controls. The result is discussed taking the findings of previ…