Alzheimer's Disease

THE landmark case report of Alzheimer's disease, which was published in 1907,1 described the autopsy findings in a woman who died at 55 with progressive dementia and in whom newly available silver stains demonstrated the presence of abnormal nerve cells containing tangles of fibers (neurofibrillary tangles) and clusters of degenerating nerve endings (neuritic plaques) in the cerebral cortex. The medical world accepted this condition as Alzheimer's disease, a cause of presenile dementia.2 However, during the next several decades, there was conflict among neurologists about whether Alzheimer's disease–like changes that occurred in very elderly persons were identical to those that occurred . . .