Can the Physician Predict the Neuropathologist?

Abstract

The clinical syndrome of dementia encompasses an enormous variety of underlying diseases. Some present as relatively consistent clinicopathological entities, whereas with others the relationship between the clinical syndrome and the underlying molecular pathology can be extremely variable. In general, the most robust associations are between the clinical syndrome and the area of cerebral cortex or subcortical structures involved. The latter may relate to the underlying molecular pathology by virtue of selective vulnerability of particular neuronal systems to a pathological process but not necessarily so.