COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATION OF NEUROFIBRILLARY DAMAGE IN THE TEMPORAL-LOBE IN ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE, DOWNS-SYNDROME AND DEMENTIA-PUGILISTICA

Neurofibrillary lesions such as neurofibrillary tangles, neurites and neuropil threads are used as neuropathological markers of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However these lesions are also seen in non-demented elde rly cases as well as in several other disorders such as Down's syndrom e (DS), dementia pugilistica (DP) and Parkinson's disease. Quantitativ e studies may therefore help in understanding the pathophysiological r ole of these lesions. Using a novel image analysis technique we have q uantified the extent of neurofibrillary damage in AD, DS and DP. We ha ve found that the extent of neurofibrillary change did not significant ly differ beween AD and DS, though there were also strong parallels be tween AD and DP. We conclude that both genetic (as in DS) and environm ental (as in DP) risk factors for AD-type pathology provide a similar pattern of neurofibrillary degeneration to that in AD itself suggestin g that similar degenerative mechanisms might be triggered in all three conditions. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited