Alzheimer’s disease pathology in motor cortex in dementia with Lewy bodies clinically mimicking corticobasal degeneration

Abstract

We report here a 70-year-old woman whose initial clinical presentation suggested corticobasal degeneration, but autopsy revealed dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) with severe Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-type pathology accentuated in the motor cortex, in conjunction with a high burden of both cortical and brain stem LB. Review of the literature disclosed four patients with AD whose peri-Rolandic region was particularly involved by the disease and who exhibited similar clinical and neuropathological findings as in our patient except they lacked LB. It appears that DLB if associated with severe AD-type pathology can, like some unusual cases of AD, mimic corticobasal degeneration.