Dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT), multiinfarct dementia (MID) and dementia occurring in the course of Parkinson's disease (PD +D) now make up one of the largest categories of chronic diseases in the elderly. In addition to the burden those illnesses impose on the affected individuals and their families they consume large socio-economic re­ sources. In the light of all the above mentioned features, it seemed to us that a Symposium on behalf of the 125th Anniversary of Birth of Aloys Alzheimer was particularly well-suited to help to advance research on Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. This International Symposium combined with a Satellite Symposium about "Clinical Aspects of Alz­ heimer Dementias" took place in June 1989 in Wiirzburg and has been organized by the Psychiatric Departments of the Universities of Wiirzburg and Munich (H. Beckmann, K. Maurer, P. Riederer, H. Hippius and H. Lauter) and the Department of Pathochemistry and General Neurochemistry of the University of Heidelberg (S. Hoyer). In the chapters which follow, thorough reviews of recognized authorities in the field of dementia are given in the four main fields of epidemiology, neuropathology, neurochemistry and clinics. This Symposium and the edition of this book would not have been possible without the generous support of E. Merck, Darmstadt. In particular we gratefully acknowledge the efforts undertaken by Mr. Hernandez-Meyer to organizing this symposium and to publish this book. Furthermore we are grateful to the secretarial help by Mrs. Moeslein, Miss Philipp and Miss Grabner.

InhaltsangabeSome philosophical aspects of Alzheimer's discovery: an American perspective.- The aging brain and its disorders.- Epidemiology of Alzheimer's disease.- Descriptive and analytic epidemiology of Alzheimer's disease.- A proposed classification of familial Alzheimer's disease based on analysis of 32 multigeneration pedigrees.- Morphology of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders.- Morphology of white matter, subcortical, dementia in Alzheimer's disease.- Morphology of the cerebral cortex in relation to Alzheimer's dementia.- Quantitative investigations of presenile and senile changes of the human entorhinal region.- Neuronal plasticity of the septo-hippocampal pathway in patients suffering from dementia of Alzheimer type.- Morphology of neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques.- An in vitro model for the study of the neurofibrillary degeneration of the Alzheimer type.- Molecular and cellular changes associated with neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques.- Brain abnormalities in aged monkeys: a model sharing features with Alzheimer's disease.- Aged dogs: an animal model to study beta-protein amyloidogenesis.- Immunocytochemical and ultrastructural pathology of nerve cells in Alzheimer's disease and related disorders.- Choline-acetyltransferase immunoreactivity in the hippocampal formation of control subjects and patients with Alzheimer's disease.- Calbindin immunoreactive _eurons in Alzheimer-type dementia.- Lactate production and glycolytic enzymes in sporadic and familial Alzheimer's disease.- Impairment of cerebral glucose metabolism parallels learning and memory dysfunctions after intracerebral streptozotocin.- Choline levels, the regulation of acetylcholine and phosphatidylcholine synthesis, and Alzheimer's disease.- Acetylcholine synthesis and membrane phospholipids.- Hippocampal and cardiovascular effects of muscarinic agents.- Cholinergie and monoaminergic neuromediator systems in DAT. Neuropathological and neurochemical findings.- Alterations in catecholamine neurons in the locus coeruleus in dementias of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.- Tyrosine hydroxylase, tryptophan hydroxylase, biopterin and neopterin in the brains and biopterin and neopterin in sera from patients with Alzheimer's disease.- Postreceptorial enhancement of neurotransmission for the treatment of cognitive disorders.- Excitatory dicarboxylic amino acid and pyramidal neurone neurotransmission of the cerebral cortex in Alzheimer's disease.- The sequence within the two polyadenylation sites of the A4 amyloid peptide precursor stimulates the translation.- Alzheimer-like changes of cortical amino acid transmitters in elderly Down's syndrome.- Characteristics of learning deficit induced by ibotenic acid lesion of the frontal cortex in rats.- Memory loss by glutamate antagonists: an animal model of Alzheimer's disease?.- Convulsant properties of methylxanthines, potential cognitive enhancers in dementia syndromes.- Neurodegenerative diseases: CSF amines, lactate and clinical findings.- Somatostatin-like immunoreactivity and neurotransmitter metabolites in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with senile dementia of Alzheimer type and Parkinson's disease.- Nerve growth factor in serum of patients with dementia (Alzheimer type).- Neuroendocrine dysfunction in early-onset Alzheimer's disease.- Urinary excretion of salsolinol enantiomers and 1,2-dehydrosalsolinol in patients with degenerative dementia.- Alzheimer's disease - one, two or several?.- Diagnostic criteria of Alzheimer's disease.- Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: DSM-III-R, ICD-10 - what else?.- Clinical aspects and terminology of dementing syndromes.- Symptoms of depression in the course of multi-infarct dementia and dementia of Alzheimer's type.- Cognitive deterioration and dementia outcome in depression: the search for prognostic factors.- Diagnostic significance of language evaluation in early stages of Alzheimer's disease.- The Alzheimer patient in the family context: how to h