Microscopic image analysis in a diagnostic system for Alzheimer's disease

摘要

Microscopic image analysis (MIA) is used to measure quantitatively the features of pyramidal neurons, dentate neurons and amyloid plaques in the hippocampus of postmortem brains from individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and normal controls. The average area and optical density, which is proportional to nucleic acid content, of AD neurons are equal to or greater than those of normal neurons. These increases remain to be explained. Plaques are also greater in size and in number for AD. A diagnostic and grading system for AD is proposed on the basis of these quantitative features.