CHICAGO, June 27 (UPI) -- Alzheimer's pathology can appear in the brains of men and women without dementia or cognitive impairment, says a U.S. study.
The study, published in Neurology, evaluated 134 older men and women who didn't have cognitive impairment at the time of their death. After the participants died, their brains were examined at autopsy.
More than one-third of the participants met criteria for a pathologic diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, including lesions of brain tissue at autopsy.
"The results provide evidence in support of the idea that some type of neural reserve can allow a large number of older persons to tolerate a significant amount of Alzheimer's pathology without manifesting obvious dementia," said study author Dr. David A. Bennett of the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago.
Dr. Carol F. Lippa, who wrote an editorial in the same issue of Neurology, said the study questions the acceptability of minor episodic memory loss in older adults as "normal."
"Maybe this early decline in episodic memory precedes mild cognitive impairment and should be the target of research efforts in the early detection of Alzheimer's disease," said Lippa.
