Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 11, 2026

Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans
Published on: December 18, 2016
Is there any relation between pseudoexfoliation syndrome and Alzheimer's type dementia?
Tongabay Cumurcu1, Ferhat Dorak, Birgul Elbozan Cumurcu
1Inonu University School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Malatya, Turkey. tongabay@superonline.com
Purpose:
To investigate the frequency of Alzheimer-related dementia in patients with pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PEX).
Methods:
Sixty-seven patients with PEX and 67 age-, gender-, and educational-background-matched control subjects were compared for the presence of Alzheimer-related dementia according to DSM- IV-TR. The effects of cataract, glaucoma, additional ocular and systemic disease on the dementia incidence were also evaluated in patients with PEX and the control group.
Results:
The frequency of Alzheimer-related dementia was higher in patients with PEX (p = 0.0001). The frequency of dementia in patients who had cataract was higher than in patients without cataract (p = 0.003). There was also an association between additional ocular disease and dementia (p < 0.05). However, there was no association between systemic disease and dementia (p > 0.05). Furthermore, there was no difference for the frequency of dementia between patients who had glaucoma or not among patients with PEX (p = 0.953).
Conclusion:
The increased frequency of Alzheimer-related dementia in patients with PEX is important and a possible association between PEX and Alzheimer's disease could be present.
Related Concept Videos
Alzheimer Disease l: Introduction
Alzheimer Disease ll: Pathophysiology
Dementia l: Introduction
Alzheimer's Disease: Overview
The clinical diagnosis of AD hinges on the presence of memory and other cognitive impairments. Biomarkers, such as changes in Aβ and tau...
Dementia
The progression of dementia is generally gradual.
Parkinson Disease ll: Pathophysiology
