The Living Brain and Alzheimer's Disease

For nearly a century the definitive diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease has been based upon histopathological changes that can be observed only at autopsy. The marked neuronal loss and development of amyloid-containing extracellular plaques and Tau-containing intracellular neurofibrillary tangles have provided clues to the biology of Alzheimer’s disease as well as insight into clinical-pathological correlations (Duyckaerts et al. 1998). However, we believe that it is now critical to move from histopathological diagnosis to diagnosis in the “living brain.”