Page 73 - Libro Memoria Cien Inglés

Members of the department of neuropathology

The neuropathology of dementia landscape has dramatically chan-
ged in recent years. The incorporation to the neuropathological
diagnosis of new antibodies for immunostaining and new molecular
techniques has helped establishing the boundaries and internal hete-
rogeneity of entities such as dementia with Lewy bodies and fronto-
temporal dementia and has also led to the discovery of new entities
in this area (DFT-TDP. DFT-FUS, etc.). The neuropathological study of
an increasing number of patients with neurodegenerative pathology
has allowed identifying new genetic causes of these diseases, thus
helping to define new molecular targets for possible therapeutic
approaches. In addition, the definition of diagnostic criteria from lar-
ge series of brains (in biobanks of neurological tissue or brain banks)
has allowed us to address the problem of combined and mixed pa-
thology, specifically regarding Alzheimer's disease. The evolution of
the diagnostic criteria themselves (e.g., the new criteria for the diag-
nostic classification of Alzheimer's disease proposed by the National
Institute of Aging - Alzheimer's Association, 2012) and molecular tech-
niques are converting the histological diagnosis into an fundamental
element in the process of classifying dementias, definitive or qua-
si-definitive in some cases, but partial or probabilistic in many others.