DEMENTIA WITH LEWY BODIES

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the recommended term for a common c ause of dementia characterized by the histological presence of distinc tive inclusions within neurons, Lewy bodies (McKeith et al, 1996). Fol lowing increasing pathological recognition, core clinical diagnostic f eatures have been identified to allow diagnosis in life. Insights into the biology of this type of neurodegeneration suggest that the region al patterns of involvement might allow therapeutic intervention. Altho ugh Lewy bodies had long been recognized in the substantia nigra and o ther subcortical nuclei in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), it was only in the 1970s that a significant number of reports began to be published from Japan describing patients with dementia and parkinsoni sm associated with the presence of Lewy bodies in cortical neurons (re viewed by Kosaka, 1990). Since these reports, different workers have u sed a variety of terms to describe this disease process, including dif fuse Lewy body disease (Yoshimura, 1983), Lewy body dementia (Gibb et al, 1987), senile dementia of Lewy body type (Ferry et al, 1990a) and the Lewy body variant of Alzheimer's disease (Hansen et al, 1990).