The brain diseases causing senile dementia. A morphological study on 54 consecutive autopsy cases.

Brains from 54 patients with organic dementia were examined systematically. As in previous investigations a predominance of Alzheimer type changes was observed. Seventeen patients showed Lewy bodies in the nucleus basalis, the substantia nigra and the locus coeruleus as well as other lesions of parkinsonian type. In 5 cases these changes were thought to be responsible for dementia. In 8 patients no convincing morphological substrate of dementia was found. These patients were older than average; therefore age per se might have been responsible for dementia. It is emphasized that subjective judgements are almost unavoidable in assessing the cause of organic dementia.