Metabolic encephalopathies in Alzheimer disease

In 1906, German neuropathologist and psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer described eine eigenartige Erkrankung der Hirnrinde (a peculiar disease of the cerebral cortex). Alzheimer noted two abnormalities in autopsied brain tissue from his index case: senile plaques, proteinaceous structures previously described in the brain of normal elderly people; and abnormal cells delineated with silver stain that became known as neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). The distribution and abundance of tangle-filled neurons are now the main criteria used to diagnose Alzheimer disease (AD) at autopsy