COMPARISON OF SILVER STAININGS AND IMMUNOHISTOLOGY FOR THE DETECTION OF NEUROFIBRILLARY TANGLES AND EXTRACELLULAR CEREBRAL AMYLOID IN PARAFFIN SECTIONS

The sensitivities of six silver-staining methods and immunohistology f or beta and tau protein were compared for their ability to demonstrate neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) and senile plaques (SP) in paraffin sec tions. Serial sections of the hippocampal area of 35 brains showing th ese neuropathological findings were cut and stained by the methods of Cross, Campbell, Bielschowsky, Gallyas, Yamaguchi, our variant (method of Reusche) and immunohistology. In the detection of NFT, the techniq ues of Gallyas, Bielschowsky, our method and tau protein immunostainin g were the most sensitive methods. The procedure of Campbell and again our method were proven to be superior to the other stainings in demon strating SP as well as diffuse and subpial amyloid. Moreover, our meth od reliably stained vascular and perivascular amyloid which can be ide ntified in brains with congophilic angiopathy. Due to a lack of contro l in certain steps of the procedures most of the silver-staining metho ds are complicated and to not present reliable results. Our variant is easy to perform and, thus, may be used as a sensitive, simple and rel iable alternative for the impregnation of the main lesions (NFT and SP ) occurring in senile dementia of Alzheimer type and brains with norma l aging for screening, retrospective and quantitative studies and for routine purposes.