Diseases & Conditions Blog

Brain Diseases Linked to Dementia - Monday, October 1, 2007

A new study indicates that a person's likelihood of having clinical signs of dementia increases with the number of different disease processes present in the brain. Although many older adults show some sort of brain abnormalities, the new research suggests that the combination of Alzheimer's disease and strokes is the most common mix of pathologies in the brains of people suffering from dementia.

A study of 1,200 elderly volunteers who agreed to be evaluated every year and to donate their brains upon death compared clinical and autopsy date on the first 141 participants who died. Exams showed that while they were alive, 50 of the 141 had dementia. Upon their deaths, their brains were analyzed by a neuropathologist. The autopsies showed that 85% of the people had evidence of at least one chronic disease such as Alzheimer's, strokes, tumors, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson's disease, or others. Only 30% of the people studied with signs of dementia had Alzheimer's disease alone.