OO005 - A NEUROPATHOLOGICAL STUDY OF AΒ AND TAU BURDEN IN BRAIN REGIONS OF POSTERIOR CORTICAL ATROPHY CASES RELATIVE TO TYPICAL ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE. (ID 1622)
Abstract
Aims
Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a variant of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) which presents with visual and spatial problems, functions attributed to occipito-parietal or “posterior” regions of the brain rather than the memory problems seen in typical Alzheimer’s disease (TAD) and associated with the temporal region. This study aimed to quantify Aβ plaques and tau neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) in PCA, in comparison with TAD in the frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital brain regions.
Methods
Immunohistochemistry for Aβ and tau was carried out on 26 clinically and pathologically phenotyped PCA cases and 27 age and gender-matched TAD cases.
Results
There was a higher burden of Aβ and tau in the parietal region of PCA compared to TAD. In the PCA compared with the TAD group, there was a significant increase in tau burden in the frontal and parietal regions relative to the temporal regions.
Conclusions
There was a higher burden of Aβ and tau in the parietal region of PCA compared to TAD. In the PCA compared with the TAD group, there was a significant increase in tau burden in frontal and parietal regions relative to temporal regions.The observed higher burden of Aβ and tau in the parietal region of PCA compared to TAD is in line with previous studies.The higher frontal relative to temporal tau burden in PCA is in keeping with the evidence for the frontal region as a particularly vulnerable region for accumulation of tau over time in atypical AD despite a posterior predominant distribution pattern in the occipito-parietal regions at baseline.
