Neurodegenerative diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases is a big part of neuropathology.

General DDx of dementia

• Alzheimer's dementia.
• Vascular.
  • multi-infarct dementia.
• Parkinson's associated dementia.
• Lewy body dementia.
• Alcohol-related dementia.
• Fronto-temporal dementia (Pick disease).
• Multisystem atrophy.

Mnemonic VITAMIN D VEST:

• Vitamin deficiency (B12, folate, thiamine).
• Infection (HIV).
• Trauma.
• Anoxia.
• Metabolic (Diabetes).
• Intracranial tumour.
• Normal pressure hydrocephalus.
• Degenerative (Alzheimer's, Huntington's, CJD).
• Vascular.
• Endocrine.
• Space occupying lesion (chronic subdural hematoma).
• Toxins (alcohol).

Lewy body dementia

• Parkinsonian features.
• Hallucinations (visual).
• Progressive cog. decline with fluctuations.

Multiple system atrophy

• Alpha-synuclein-rich glial cytoplasmic inclusions - finding at autopsy.
  • Alpha-synuclein is implicated in a number of neurodegenerative diseases.

Progressive supranuclear palsy

General

• AKA Steele-Richardson-Olszewski syndrome.
• Diagnosis: clinical.

Microscopic

Features:

• Neurofibrillary tangles.

Huntington disease

General

• Autosomal dominant inheritance.
• Mutation: unstable CAG repeat.

Gross

• Missing caudate.

Image: Huntington's disease (ouhsc.edu).

See also

• Neuropathology.
• Neurohistology.