THE CASE DESCRIBED BY ALZHEIMER,ALOIS IN 1911 - HISTORICAL AND CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVES BASED ON THE CLINICAL RECORD AND NEUROHISTOLOGICAL SECTIONS

In 1906, Alzheimer presented the first case of the disease which was l ater named Alzheimer's disease by Kraeplin. While the publication on t his case in 1907 is only a relatively short communication, Alzheimer p ublished a very comprehensive paper in 1911 in which he discussed the concept of the disease in detail. This publication focusses on the rep ort of a second patient suffering from Alzheimer's disease, the case o f Johann F. The detection of neurohistopathological sections from this patient found among archives at the Institute of Neuropathology of th e University of Munich enabled us to reinvestigate this case using mod em methods. Neurohistopathologically, the case of Johann F. is ''plaqu e-only'' Alzheimer's disease. There is a controversy in the modem lite rature as to whether these ''plaque-only'' cases belong to the modem c oncept of Alzheimer's disease. A careful analysis of all pros and cont ras in the literature led to the conclusion that plaque-only cases are also an integrative part of the modern Alzheimer disease concept.