Alzheimer's disease: Neuropathology

The definite diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is a neuropathological one.

It requires the demonstration of two characteristic lesions, in high numbers, in the grey matter of the cortical brain areas.

These lesions are amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.

A biochemical diagnosis is also possible, by quantifying pathological tau proteins and Abeta peptide (Delacourte et al, 1999, 2002). Indeed, we have determine the CEBDAD criteria, which are complementary to neuropathological data.

At the last stages of the disease, the hippocampal formation and most, if not all the cortical brain areas, as well as many subcortical nuclei, are heavily filled with two different types of lesions.

AMYLOID PLAQUES

and

NEUROFIBRILLARY TANGLES