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Consuelo H. Wilkins, MD, MS; Elizabeth A. Grant, PhD; Sarah E. Schmitt, MD; Daniel W. McKeel, MD; John C. Morris, MD

Arch Neurol. 2006;63:87-90.

Background  Data from neuropathologic studies of the frequency of Alzheimer disease (AD) among African American persons conflict as to whether the neuropathologic phenotype of AD is identical in African American and white persons.

Objectives  To examine clinical and neuropathologic phenotypes of AD in African American individuals and to compare AD and vascular burdens between African American and white persons.

Design, Setting, and Patients  Ten African American decedents who underwent brain autopsy at the Washington University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center were matched for age, sex, and Clinical Dementia Rating with 10 white decedents between January 1, 1990, and January 1, 2000. The presence and degree of neurofibrillary tangles, senile plaques, Lewy bodies, cerebral infarcts, and cerebral amyloid angiopathy were determined.

Results  All 20 individuals had a neuropathologic diagnosis of AD. There were no group differences in the presence or number of infarcts, plaques, tangles, Lewy bodies, or amyloid angiopathy.

Conclusion  In this small sample, we found no substantive differences in the neuropathology of AD among African American and white individuals.

Author Affiliations: Departments of Internal Medicine (Dr Wilkins), Neurology (Dr Morris), Biostatistics (Dr Grant), and Pathology and Immunology (Drs McKeel and Morris), and the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (Drs Wilkins, Grant, McKeel, and Morris), Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Mo. Dr Schmitt, who was a medical student at Washington University School of Medicine when the study was conducted, is now with the Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

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