TY - JOUR
T1 - The prevalence of the neuropathological lesions of Alzheimer's disease is independent of race and gender
AU - Sandberg, Glenn
AU - Stewart, Walter
AU - Smialek, John
AU - Troncoso, Juan C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Research Center (NIH Grant: AG 05146).
PY - 2001
Y1 - 2001
N2 - Senile plaques (SP) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) are the lesions characteristic of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we examined variation in the proportion of individuals who had these lesions by race, age, and gender in a series of 138 autopsies conducted at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the State of Maryland between 1990 and 1998. Cases were selected on the bases of age between 40 to 79 years and non-natural manner of death, and included 73% males, 61% subjects < 65 years of age, and 42% African Americans. Observations were conducted on histologic sections of the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and inferior temporal cortex stained with silver (Hirano method) and immunostained for Aβ-amyloid. We found that SP and NFT are strongly associated with age. These lesions begin to appear in the early to late 40s, depending on the anatomic location, and become common in the 6th decade, preceding by one to two decades the age at which AD becomes clinically prevalent. No difference in the prevalence of SP or NFT was found by gender or between whites and African Americans. The latter is in contrast to epidemiologic studies that suggest AD is more prevalent in African Americans than in whites.
AB - Senile plaques (SP) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) are the lesions characteristic of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we examined variation in the proportion of individuals who had these lesions by race, age, and gender in a series of 138 autopsies conducted at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the State of Maryland between 1990 and 1998. Cases were selected on the bases of age between 40 to 79 years and non-natural manner of death, and included 73% males, 61% subjects < 65 years of age, and 42% African Americans. Observations were conducted on histologic sections of the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and inferior temporal cortex stained with silver (Hirano method) and immunostained for Aβ-amyloid. We found that SP and NFT are strongly associated with age. These lesions begin to appear in the early to late 40s, depending on the anatomic location, and become common in the 6th decade, preceding by one to two decades the age at which AD becomes clinically prevalent. No difference in the prevalence of SP or NFT was found by gender or between whites and African Americans. The latter is in contrast to epidemiologic studies that suggest AD is more prevalent in African Americans than in whites.
KW - African American
KW - Alzheimer's disease (AD)
KW - Women
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U2 - 10.1016/S0197-4580(00)00236-0
DO - 10.1016/S0197-4580(00)00236-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 11182466
AN - SCOPUS:0035116430
VL - 22
SP - 169
EP - 175
JO - Neurobiology of Aging
JF - Neurobiology of Aging
SN - 0197-4580
IS - 2
ER -