Progressive dementia with "diffuse Lewy-type inclusions' in cerebral cortex. A case report

A 69-year-old male suffering from progressive dementia died 3 years after the beginning of his disease. The neuropathology of this case revealed the coexistence of senile changes, typical for Alzheimer's disease, and the characteristics of Parkinson's disease, namely, numerous senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the cerebrum and neuronal loss with depigmentation in the substantia nigra and locus caeruleus. Lewy-type inclusions were distributed not only in the pigmented brain stem nuclei, but also diffusely in the CNS. The close nosological relationship between paralysis agitans and Alzheimer's disease is discussed.