Preservation of hippocampal pyramidal cells in paraphrenia

A recent article classifies paraphrenia within the tauopathy spectrum [Acta Neuropathol., 103 (2002) 313]. More specifically, neurofibrillary changes appear restricted to the hippocampus and are accompanied by scant amyloid deposition. The present study adds the preservation of hippocampal (CA1) pyramidal cell numbers to the neuropathological findings of paraphrenia. The lack of cell loss not only distinguishes paraphrenia from Alzheimer's disease but offers, in addition, a marked similarity to a condition denoted in the medical literature as senile dementia with tangles.