Category: Parkinsonism, Others
Objective: To assess the presence of mixed neurodegenerative pathology and its proportion in the prospective cohort of patients treated for any phenotype of neurodegenerative parkinsonism, in whom the diagnosis was done according to the validated clinical diagnostic criteria.
Background: There is increasing evidence that high number of cases diagnosed clinically with phenotype, which corresponds to one of neurodegenerative proteinopathies (alpha-synucleinopathy, tauopathy, Alzheimer´s disease (AD) related proteinopathy etc.) suffered actually from two or more neurodegenerative pathological processes.
Method: A total of 49 brains of patients who were diagnosed with neurodegenerative parkinsonism or dementia and who consented to join the donor programme were autopsied; neuropathological examinations were performed according to the standard protocol.
Results: There were 25 patients, in whom the pathological examination confirmed the presence of single pathology: 13 patients suffered from alfa-synucleinopathy, 5 patients suffered from tauopathy, 1 patient suffered from TDP-34-pathology and 6 suffered from AD – related proteinopathy. In 21 patients has examination revealed the presence of double pathology (4 syn/tau, 7 syn/AD, 6 tau/AD, 4 AD/TDP-43), and in 3 patients has examination revealed the presence of triple pathology (syn/tau/AD). The correct clinical diagnosis was confirmed in 26 cases, and the incorrect clinical diagnosis was done in 23 cases; 13 of these cases suffered from the mixed brain pathology.
Conclusion: The mixed brain pathology is relatively common finding at brain autopsy in patients who suffered from neurodegenerative parkinsonism, even when the recent and validated clinical diagnostic criteria were used during the diagnostic process. This fact should serve as a basis for the further discussion about their usefulness. These findings also point to the need of intensive research aimed at identifying biomarkers capable of predicting the corresponding types of pathological processes.
Supported by: MH CZ-DRO (FNOl, 00098892) and IGA LF 2024-021
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
K. Mensikova, L. Tuckova, D. Hrabos, A. Jawad, P. Kanovsky. Mixed Brain Pathology in Neurodegenerative Parkinsonism and Dementia [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2024; 39 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/mixed-brain-pathology-in-neurodegenerative-parkinsonism-and-dementia/. Accessed October 28, 2026.« Back to 2024 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/mixed-brain-pathology-in-neurodegenerative-parkinsonism-and-dementia/