Clinicopathologic correlates in the oldest-old: Commentary on "No disease in the brain of a 115-year-old woman".

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Serval ID
serval:BIB_0FF157E5C5BE
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Publication sub-type
Letter (letter): Communication to the publisher.
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Publications
Institution
Title
Clinicopathologic correlates in the oldest-old: Commentary on "No disease in the brain of a 115-year-old woman".
Journal
Neurobiology of Aging
Author(s)
Giannakopoulos P., Bouras C., Hof P.R.
ISSN
1558-1497
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2008
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
29
Number
8
Pages
1137-1139
Language
english
Abstract
den Dunnen et al. [den Dunnen, W.F.A., Brouwer, W.H., Bijlard, E., Kamphuis, J., van Linschoten, K., Eggens-Meijer, E., Holstege, G., 2008. No disease in the brain of a 115-year-old woman. Neurobiol. Aging] had the opportunity to follow up the cognitive functioning of one of the world's oldest woman during the last 3 years of her life. They performed two neuropsychological evaluations at age 112 and 115 that revealed a striking preservation of immediate recall abilities and orientation. In contrast, working memory, retrieval from semantic memory and mental arithmetic performances declined after age 112. Overall, only a one-point decrease of MMSE score occurred (from 27 to 26) reflecting the remarkable preservation of cognitive abilities. The neuropathological assessment showed few neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) in the hippocampal formation compatible with Braak staging II, absence of amyloid deposits and other types of neurodegenerative lesions as well as preservation of neuron numbers in locus coeruleus. This finding was related to a striking paucity of Alzheimer disease (AD)-related lesions in the hippocampal formation. The present report parallels the early descriptions of rare "supernormal" centenarians supporting the dissociation between brain aging and AD processes. In conjunction with recent stereological analyses in cases aged from 90 to 102 years, it also points to the marked resistance of the hippocampal formation to the degenerative process in this age group and possible dissociation between the occurrence of slight cognitive deficits and development of AD-related pathologic changes in neocortical areas. This work is discussed in the context of current efforts to identify the biological and genetic parameters of human longevity.
Keywords
Aged, 80 and over, Atherosclerosis/pathology, Brain/pathology, Brain Diseases/pathology, Disease-Free Survival, Frail Elderly, Humans, Neurodegenerative Diseases/pathology
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
03/10/2009 11:21
Last modification date
20/08/2019 12:36
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