Illustrated Neuropathologic Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease

Nicholas Doher; Vahid Davoudi; Shino Magaki; Ryan A Townley; Mohammad Haeri; Harry V Vinters

doi:10.3390/neurolint15030054

Illustrated Neuropathologic Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease

Neurol Int. 2023 Jul 12;15(3):857-867. doi: 10.3390/neurolint15030054.

Authors

Nicholas Doher¹, Vahid Davoudi², Shino Magaki³, Ryan A Townley^{4

5}, Mohammad Haeri^{2

5}, Harry V Vinters^{3

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
² Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA.
³ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
⁴ Department of Neurology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA.
⁵ The University of Kansas Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, University of Kansas Medical Center, Fairway City, KS 66205, USA.
⁶ Department of Neurology, David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
⁷ Brain Research Institute, David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.

Abstract

As of 2022, the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) among individuals aged 65 and older is estimated to be 6.2 million in the United States. This figure is predicted to grow to 13.8 million by 2060. An accurate assessment of neuropathologic changes represents a critical step in understanding the underlying mechanisms in AD. The current method for assessing postmortem Alzheimer's disease neuropathologic change follows version 11 of the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) coding guidebook. Ambiguity regarding steps in the ABC scoring method can lead to increased time or inaccuracy in staging AD. We present a concise overview of how this postmortem diagnosis is made and relate it to the evolving understanding of antemortem AD biomarkers.

Keywords: AD neuropathologic diagnosis; Alzheimer’s disease; dementia; neurodegeneration; tauopathy.

Grants and funding

This work is supported by a startup fund provided by the University of Kansas to Mohammad Haeri and the P30 grant from the NIH/NIA to the University of Kansas Alzheimer Disease Research Center (P30 AG072973).