Increasing evidence suggests that selective neuronal loss in neurodegenerative diseases involves activation of cysteine aspartyl proteases (caspases), which initiate and execute apoptosis. In Alzheimer disease both extracellular amyloid deposits and intracellular amyloid beta protein may activate caspases, leading to cleavage of nuclear and cytoskeletal proteins, including tau protein. Proteoly...

Hereditary cerebral hemorrhage with amyloidosis in Dutch patients is an autosomal dominant form of vascular amyloidosis restricted to the leptomeninges and cerebral cortex. Clinically the disease is characterized by cerebral hemorrhages leading to an early death. Immunohistochemical studies of five patients revealed that the vascular amyloid deposits reacted intensely with an antiserum raised a...

Cortical Lewy body disease as a cause of dementia has been recognized for more than 40 years. Only in the past 15 to 20 years, however, has the true frequency of this entity come to be appreciated, primarily because of the advent of sensitive and specific immunohistochemical diagnostic techniques. We now know that there is frequent and extensive overlap, both clinically and pathologically, betw...

Alois Alzheimer is best known for his description of the pre-senile neurodegenerative disease named after him. However, his previous interest in vascular brain diseases, underlying cognitive and behavioral changes, was very strong. Besides describing the Arteriosclerotic atrophy of the brain and the arteriosclerotic subtype of Senile dementia which he viewed as main forms of vascular brain dise...

Two cases of conjunctivitis caused by adenovirus type 34 (Ad34) are reported. The isolates were identified as Ad34 by the neutralization test and the PCR-sequence method of the hexon gene but as Ad14 by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. The genome types of these two isolates were identical to that of Ad34a.

Pseudobulbar affect-such as pathological laughter or crying-is associated with several different neurologic diseases and is most frequently seen in patients with Alzheimer disease. However, many physicians do not recognize it as a symptom associated with multiple sclerosis. The present report describes a case of pathological laughter in a 56-year-old man who was diagnosed as having multiple scl...

A lumbar puncture is performed to obtain cerebral spinal fluid. It is implemented in the clinic on a routine basis to aid the diagnosis of neurologic diseases, such as dementia. This video will show the lumbar puncture procedure as routinely performed in the VUmc Alzheimer Center.