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Hello, I'm Jillian Kril,
I'm a professor of neuropathology at the University of Sydney, and
this presentation is on the neuropathology of neurodegenerative disorders.
I will describe the major pathological features of common groups of neurodegenerative diseases.
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I will focus on the four main groups of
disorders that are commonly encountered in clinical practice.
These are Alzheimer's disease (AD), frontotemporal dementias (FTD),
motor neurone disease (MND/ALS), and Lewy Body diseases (LBD).
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However, as these terms are often used to describe
both the clinical and the pathological entity,
I will endeavor to use 'Alzheimer's disease neuropathological change'
instead of 'Alzheimer's disease', and 'frontotemporal lobar degeneration'
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instead of 'frontotemporal dementia'.
Unfortunately, there aren't different terms used for
the pathology and clinical presentations of ALS or Lewy body diseases.
In discussing each of these neuropathological disorders,
I will focus on the macroscopic features of the disease, the extent, severity,
and anatomical distribution of atrophy in particular.
This is because atrophy can be paralleled in neuroimaging, and
therefore the information that we glean from
neuropathological studies can be used to inform clinical diagnoses.
I will also look at the microscopic features,
in particular the proteinopathies that differentiate
these neurodegenerative disorders, and their cellular and anatomical distribution.
I will also examine the neuropathological diagnostic criteria for each disorder.
A few words to begin with about the assessment of atrophy in post mortem brains.
This is done quantitatively using a technique developed by my colleagues and I,
whereby we were able to differentiate precise regions of
the brain on a whole hemisphere.
Once the hemisphere is sectioned, using these markings and some anatomical landmarks,
we're able to parcellate the entire brain into different functional regions.
