[Histopathologic studies in dementia--comparison with clinical findings]

This paper compares the clinical diagnosis of dementia with the result of the neuropathological brain examination in 23 patients. Aim of this investigation was a verification of the clinical diagnosis. The diagnosis was based on the clinical findings, the Mini Mental State Examination, DSM-III-R classification of dementia, the NINCDS-ADRDA-criteria, results of laboratory tests, EEG, CCT and sonography. A total of 70% of the clinical diagnosis corresponded to the neuropathological results. In 25% of these cases which clinically showed the characteristics of Alzheimer's disease histopathological findings delineated dementia of non-Alzheimer-type. These results underline the importance of additional histopathological investigations in the diagnosis of dementia.