Introduction D ementia simply means a general mental deterioration due to organic or psychological factors. This module discusses the pathology of some of the Degenerative Diseases causing dementia. Dementias do not necessarily result only from diseases of the cerebral cortex, but may also result from diseases of the subcortical connections. The disease usually develops after age 65.
Patients have a slowly progressive dementia which develops over a number of years.
The slow onset helps distinguish Alz dementia from more acute onset dementias such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob and AIDS dementia. The disease affects women more than men. Pathology Gross 2733 Mild to moderate cortical atrophy of the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes. These filaments represent hyperphosphorylated tau, a microtubule associated protein. These often surround a central core of amyloid 4005 .