Johannes Attems (United Kingdom)
Newcastel University
Translational and Clinical Research Institute
Johannes Attems’ research interest is neurodegenerative diseases of the ageing brain with a focus on clinico-neuropathological correlative studies. Despite the categorisation of age associated neurodegenerative diseases into specific subtypes, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body diseases, it becomes more and more apparent that the ageing brain is characterised by the presence of multiple pathologies. Hence, JA aims to improve the neuropathological assessment of this cerebral multimorbidity (e.g. by employing fully automated quantitative assessment of neuropathological lesions) to evaluate the combined influence of various morbidities on the clinical picture as this might lead to the identification of new disease subtypes and thereby to the development of novel therapeutic strategies against age associated neurodegeneration. JA is Professor of Neuropathology at Newcastle University, Honorary Consultant Pathologist at Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle and Director of the Newcastle Brain Tissue Resource. He is Editor in Chief of Acta Neuropathologica and leads the Neurodegenerative Pathology Research Groups, since 2003 he published over 380 scientific articles, which were cited over 19,000 times and his h-index is 66.

Presenter of 2 Presentations

 Conference Calendar

Discussants

Session Name
2000 - FORUM ON:COVID-19 AND THE BRAIN (ID 122)
Session Type
FORUM
Date
Sun, 20.03.2022
Session Time
12:40 PM - 01:40 PM
Room
ONSITE PLENARY: 115-117
Lecture Time
12:40 PM - 01:40 PM
Presenter

PRE-RECORDED: THE NEUROPATHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS OF LEWY BODY DISEASES; AN UPDATE

Session Name
0240 - NEUROPATHOLOGY IN AD, LBD AND OTHER DEMENTIA & TRANSCRANIAL PULSE STIMULATION (ID 190)
Session Type
SYMPOSIUM
Date
Wed, 16.03.2022
Session Time
08:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Room
ONSITE: 133-134
Lecture Time
10:15 AM - 10:30 AM
Presenter

Abstract

Abstract Body

The neuropathological diagnosis of Lewy body disease (LBD) may be stated according to several staging systems, which include the Braak Lewy body stages (Braak), the consensus criteria by McKeith and colleagues (McKeith), the modified McKeith system by Leverenz and colleagues (Leverenz), the Unified Staging System by Beach and colleagues (Beach), and the recently established Lewy pathology consensus criteria (LPC). Braak, McKeith, Leverenz and Beach use semi-quantitative scoring of Lewy pathology (LP) in defined cortical and subcortical areas. While these systems are widely used, some suffer from low inter-rater reliability and/ or an inability to unequivocally classify all cases with LP. The LPC on the other hand are based on a dichotomous approach for the scoring of LP and includes amygdala predominant and olfactory only stages.

In a multicentre study we found that McKeith, Leverenz, and LPC systems reached good, while both Braak and Beach systems had lower inter-rater reliability, respectively. Using the LPC system all cases could be unequivocally classified by the majority of raters, which was also seen for 97.1% when the Beach system was used. However, a considerable proportion of cases could not be classified when using Leverenz (11.8%), McKeith (26.5%), or Braak (29.4%) systems.

We established that the LPC system has good reproducibility and allows classification of all cases into distinct categories. We expect that it will be reliable and useful in routine diagnostic practice and therefore suggest that it should be the standard future approach for the basic post-mortem evaluation of LP.

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