Variation in the neuropathological assessment of autopsy brains from patients clinically diagnoses as Alzheimer's disease (AD) has hampered clinical-pathological correlative studies and pooling of data from multiple centers. To overcome this problem, the Neuropathology Task Force of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) has developed a neuropathology data and to achieve quality assurance. CERAD neuropathologists have agreed to participate in the standardization studies proposed in this application.
The specific aims of the Neuropathology Task Force are: (1) To apply a brief, reliable, and standardized neuropathological protocol for the examination of autopsy brains from patients clinically diagnoses as AD and to achieve quality assurance for this assessment. (2) To analyze the relationship between neuropathological changes in the brain and specific CERAD clinical, neuropsychological, and neuro-imaging findings and, when possible, to analyze the nature and neuroanatomical distribution of specific AD findings in patients with mild disease. (3) To assess the types and frequency of other dementing disorders coexisting with AD or occurring alone. (4) To investigate overlapping neuropathological findings of Parkinson's disease and cerebrovascular disease in neuropathologically-confirmed AD cases and to correlate these findings with specific CERAD clinical manifestations. (5) To review nd pool information on unusual neuropathological cases from patients diagnosed clinically as having Alzheimer's disease. (6) To develop an archival computerized imaging system for capture, storing and displaying selected neuropathological findings in a manner appropriate for documentation, research, and educational purposes that can be utilized by CERAD and non-CERAD investigators alike. The clinical-pathological correlative aims described above will be a cooperative effort involving the Clinical, Neuropsychological, Neuroimaging, and the Methodology and Data Management Task Forces. In addition to these goals, we plan to undertake a pilot study to determine the feasibility of establishing an archival imaging system during the third year of this program.
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