Multiple brain pathologies in dementia are common

Abstract

Multiple pathological processes are common in those with dementia and can affect clinical presentations. This study defined the extent of multiple pathological processes at autopsy in a well-characterized dementia clinic population and determined their impact on cognitive deficits. Forty-five cases from the Canadian Collaborative Cohort of Related Dementia (ACCORD) were prospectively assigned one primary clinical diagnosis and up to one secondary clinical diagnosis. Neuropathological examination followed a uniform protocol including mandatory semiquantitative assessment of a wide range of pathological changes. Multiple significant pathologies were identified in 21 cases (46.7%) including 19 ..