Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Alzheimer disease

AD pathology—emerging subtypes or age-of-onset spectrum?

  • News & Views
  • Published:

From Nature Reviews Neurology

View current issue Sign up to alerts

A new cross-sectional study proposes three subtypes of Alzheimer disease: hippocampal-sparing, typical and limbic-predominant, associated with average lifespans of 72, 79 and 86 years, respectively. A longitudinal view suggests that age might be a major neuropathological determinant, with typical cases having younger onset and limbic-predominant cases having older onset.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

References

  1. Murray, M. E. et al. Neuropathologically defined subtypes of Alzheimer's disease with distinct clinical characteristics: a retrospective study. Lancet Neurol. 10, 785–796 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Blessed, G., Tomlinson, B. E. & Roth, M. The association between quantitative measures of dementia and of senile change in the cerebral grey matter of elderly subjects. Br. J. Psychiatry 114, 797–811 (1968).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Terry, R. D., Gonatas, N. K. & Weiss, M. Ultrastructural studies in Alzheimer's presenile dementia. Am. J. Pathol. 44, 269–297 (1964).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Katzman, R. Editorial: The prevalence and malignancy of Alzheimer disease. A major killer. Arch. Neurol. 33, 217–218 (1976).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Braak, H. & Braak, E. Neuropathological stageing of Alzheimer-related changes. Acta Neuropathol. 82, 239–259 (1991).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Kawas, C. H. & Corrada, M. M. Alzheimer's and dementia in the oldest-old: a century of challenges. Curr. Alzheimer Res. 3, 411–419 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Hansen, L. A., DeTeresa, R., Davies, P. & Terry, R. D. Neocortical morphometry, lesion counts, and choline acetyltransferase levels in the age spectrum of Alzheimer's disease. Neurology 38, 48–54 (1988).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Nelson, P. T. et al. Alzheimer's disease is not “brain aging”: neuropathological, genetic, and epidemiological human studies. Acta Neuropathol. 121, 571–587 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eliezer Masliah.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Masliah, E., Hansen, L. AD pathology—emerging subtypes or age-of-onset spectrum?. Nat Rev Neurol 8, 11–12 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2011.205

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2011.205

  • Springer Nature Limited

Navigation