Summary
The Lewy body variant of Alzheimer disease (LBV) occupies a messy middle ground between Alzheimer disease (AD) on the one hand, and pure Lewy body diseases (Parkinson’s disease or diffuse Lewy body disease), on the other. In addition to brainstem and neocortical Lewy bodies, LBV brains have enough neocortical neuritic plaques to meet diagnostic criteria for AD. However, neurofibrillary pathology in LBV is modest, since tangle densities in LBV are typically intermediate between AD and age-matched controls or pure Lewy body disease brains. Apolipoprotein E-4 is overrepresented in LBV, as it is in AD but is not in PD or diffuse Lewy body disease (DLBD). Neurologically, LBV patients often display sufficient parkinsonian signs to separate them from AD, but these findings are usually too subtle to warrant clinical diagnoses of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Neuropsychological deficits in LBV include a subcortical dementia pattern similar to DLBD, and more severe global cognitive impairment reminiscent of AD.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Alford MF, Masliah E, Hansen LA, Terry RD (1994) A simple dot- immunobinding assay for quantification of synaptophysin-like immunoreactivity in human brain. J Histochem Cytochem 42: 283–287.
Benjamin R, Leake A, Edwardson JA, McKeith IG, Ince PG, Perry RH, Morris CM (1994) Apolipoprotein E genes in Lewy body and Parkinson’s disease. Lancet 343:1565.
Bergeron C, Pollanen M (1989) Lewy bodies in Alzheimer disease; one or two diseases? Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 3: 197–204.
Bierer LM, Perl DP, Haroutunian V, Mohs RC, Davis KL (1990) Neurofibrillary tangles, Alzheimer’s disease, and Lewy bodies. Lancet 335 8682: 163.
Braak H, Braak E (1991) Neuropathological stageing of Alzheimer-related changes. Acta Neuropathol 82: 239–259.
Dickson DW, Davies P, Mayeux R, Crystal H, Horoupian DS, Thompson A, Goldman JE (1987) Diffuse Lewy body disease: neuropathological and biochemical studies of six patients. Acta Neuropathol 75: 8–15.
Ditter SM, Mirra SS (1987) Neuropathologic and clinical features of Parkinson’s disease in Alzheimer’s disease patients. Neurology 37: 754–60.
Galasko D, Saitoh T, Xia Y, Thal LJ, Katzman R, Hill LR, Hansen L (1994) The apoplipoprotein E allele e4 is over-represented in patients with the Lewy body variant of Alzheimer’s disease. Neurology 44: 1950–1953.
Galasko K, Katzman R, Salmon DP, Thai LJ, Hansen L (1996) Clinical and neuropathological findings in Lewy body dementias. Brain Cogn 31:166–175.
Hansen LA, Masliah E, Terry RD, Mirra SS (1989) A neuropathological subset of Alzheimer’s disease with concomitant Lewy body disease and spongiform change. Acta Neuropathol 78: 194–201.
Hansen L, Salmon D, Galasko D, Masliah E, Katzman R, DeTeresa R, Thal L, Pay M, Hofstetter R, Klauber M, Rice V, Butters N, Alford M (1990) The Lewy body variant of Alzheimer’s disease: a clinical and pathological entity. Neurology 40: 1–8.
Hansen LA, Masliah E, Quijada-Fawcett S, Rexin D (1991) Entorhinal neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer’s disease with Lewy bodies. Neurosci Lett 129: 269–272.
Hansen LA, Masliah E, Galasko D, Terry RD (1993) Plaque only Alzheimer disease is usually the Lewy body variant, and vice versa. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 52: 648–654.
Hansen LA, Galasko D, Samuel W, Xia Y, Chen X, Saitoh T (1994) Apolipoprotein-E e-4 is associated with increased neurofibrillary pathology in the Lewy body variant of Alzheimer disease. Neurosci Lett 182: 63–65.
Harrington CR, Louwagie J, Rossau R, Vanmechelen E, Perry RH, Perry EK, Xuereb JH, Roth M, Wischik CM (1994) Influence of apolipoprotein E genotype on senile dementia of the Alzheimer and Lewy body types. Am J Pathol 145: 1472–1484.
Ince P, Irving D, MacArthur F, Perry RH (1991) Quantitative neuropathological study of Alzheimer-type pathology in the hippocampus: comparison of senile dementia of Lewy body type, Parkinson’s disease and non-demented elderly control patients. J Neurol Sci 106: 142–52.
Joachim CL, Morris JH, Selkoe DJ (1988) Clinically diagnosed Alzheimer disease: autopsy results in 150 cases. Ann Neurol 24: 50–6.
Khachaturian ZS (1985) Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Arch Neurol 42: 1097–105.
Kosaka K (1990) Diffuse Lewy body disease in Japan. J Neurol 237: 197–204.
Langlais PJ, Thal L, Hansen LA, Galasko D, Alford M, Masliah E (1993) Neurotransmitters in basal ganglia and cortex of Alzheimer’s disease with and without Lewy bodies. Neurology 43: 1927–1934.
Menzel H, Kladetzky RG, Assman G (1983) Apolipoprotein E polymorphism and coronary artery disease. Arteriosclerosis 3: 310–315.
Mirra SS, Hart MN, Terry RD (1993) Making the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Arch Pathol Lab Med 117: 132–144.
Nalbantoglu J, Gilfix BM, Bertrand P, Robitaille Y, Gauthier S, Rosenblatt DS, Poitier J (1994) Predictive value of apolipoprotein E genotyping in Alzheimer’s disease: results of an autopsy series and an analysis of several combined studies. Ann Neurol 36: 889–895.
Perry RH, Irving D, Blessed G, Fairbairn A, Perry EK (1990) Senile dementia of the Lewy body type. A clinical and neuropathologically distinct form of Lewy body dementia in the elderly. J Neurol Sci 95: 119–139.
Pickering-Brown SM, Mann DMA, Bourke JP, Roberts DA, Bilderson D, Burns A, Byrne J, Owen F (1994) Apolipoprotein E4 and Alzheimer’s disease pathology in Lewy body disease and in other beta amyloid forming diseases. Lancet 343: 1115.
St. Clair D, Norrman J, Perry R, Yates C, Wilcock G, Brooks A (1994) Apolipoprotein E e4 allele frequency in patients with Lewy body dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and age-matched controls. Neurosci Lett 176: 45–46.
Strittmatter WJ, Saunders AM, Schmechel D, Pericak-Vance M, Enghild J, Salvesen GS, Roses AD (1993) Apolipoprotein E: high-avidity binding to β-amyloid and increased frequency of type 4 allele in late-onset familial Alzheimer disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 90: 1977–1981.
Terry RD, Hansen LA, DeTeresa R, Davies P, Tobias H, Katzman R (1987) Senile dementia of the Alzheimer type without neocortical neurofibrillary tangles. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 46: 262–268.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer-Verlag/Wien
About this paper
Cite this paper
Hansen, L.A. (1997). The Lewy body variant of Alzheimer disease. In: Daniel, S.E., Cruz-Sánchez, F.F., Lees, A.J. (eds) Dementia in Parkinsonism. Journal of Neural Transmission. Supplementa, vol 51. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-6846-2_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-6846-2_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna
Print ISBN: 978-3-211-82959-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-7091-6846-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive