NEURONAL PATTERN CORRELATES WITH THE SEVERITY OF HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS-ASSOCIATED DEMENTIA COMPLEX - USEFULNESS OF SPATIAL PATTERN-ANALYSIS IN CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL STUDIES

The spatial distributional pattern of neurons, in the superior frontal gyrus of 32 subjects who died of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, was examined. The patients were classified as nondemented, mildly dem ented, and severely demented, and some were treated with the anti-retr oviral drug zidovudine. Spatial statistical techniques were employed t o investigate the degree of clustering in the individual cases and var ious groups. We found that the cluster pattern of large and small neur ons differed significantly with increasing severity of dementia but wa s not influenced by the duration of zidovudine treatment. We conclude that this is a sensitive technique for clinicopathological correlation s and that the differences may result from loss of specific neuronal p opulations, which could determine the degree of dementia.