Aluminum accumulation in tangle-bearing neurons of Alzheimer's disease with Balint's syndrome in a long-term aluminum refiner.

Progressive dementia had developed since the age of 55 in a male patient, who had worked as an aluminum refiner for 30 years. Balint's syndrome was observed from at 60 and he died of bronchopneumonia at 65. Neuropathological examination revealed characteristic features of Alzheimer's disease with marked atrophy of the occipito-temporal lobes and senile plaques of the cerebellum. Wavelength-dispersive X-ray microanalysis disclosed focal aluminum accumulation within the nucleus and cytoplasm of the tangle-bearing neurons. Microanalysis by the same method failed to disclose aluminum accumulation in the tangle-bearing neurons in a case of senile dementia of Alzheimer's type who had no possible inhalation of aluminum.