Alzheimer's Disease
See also Dementia
Epidemiology
- accounts for over 50% of dementia
- affects 5% of over 65s, 15% of over 80s
- twice as many females as men
Pathology
- cortical atrophy, widened sulci, shrunken gyri
- compensatory hydrocephalus
- senile plaques
- extracellular
- swollen neuronal processes
- amyloid
- Neurofibrillary tangles
- intracellular
- PHF (????)
- Tau protein
- neuronal cell loss
- granulovacuolar degeneration
- gliosis, loss of dendrites
- Hirano bodies
- eosinophilic, cigar shaped
- diminished ACh, CAT neurones, GABA, NA, 5-HT
Risk Factors
- Age
- Family History
- Genes on chromosomes 21, 14, 1, 19
- Down's syndrome
- Head injury
- limited education (or does this just reflect less ability to adapt to
degeneration?)
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