2011/01/03 by Stavros J. Baloyannis, Spyros L. Manolides, Leonidas S. Manolides
Medicine · #Alzheimer's disease research and treatments #Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research #Voice and Speech Disorders
paper · doi:10.3109/00016489.2010.539626
crossref issued 2011/01/03 · crossref published 2011/01/03 · crossref published-online 2011/01/03 · openalex publication_date 2011/01/03 · crossref created 2011/01/03 · crossref published-print 2011/06/01 · crossref deposited 2019/06/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29 · crossref indexed 2026/07/31
CONCLUSIONS: The morphological and morphometric estimation of the dendrites and the dendritic spines in the acoustic cortex in Alzheimer's disease revealed substantial alterations of the dendritic arborization and marked loss of the dendritic spines, which may be related to communication impairment even in early cases of Alzheimer's disease. OBJECTIVES: Alzheimer's disease is characterized by progressive loss of memory, impairment of judgment, and decline in communication and speech eloquence. In the present study we attempted to describe the morphological and morphometric alterations of the dendrites and the dendritic spines in the acoustic cortex in early cases of Alzheimer's disease, in order to approach the communication impairment of patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease from a neuropathological point of view. METHODS: We studied the acoustic cortex in 22 cases of Alzheimer's disease by Golgi technique and electron microscopy. RESULTS: The morphological and morphometric estimation of the acoustic cortex revealed loss of Cajal-Retzius cells in layer I, as well as an impressive abbreviation of the dendritic fields associated with loss of dendritic spines in all the layers of the cortex. Numerous distorted, dystrophic, and degenerated dendritic spines were also seen, which were intermixed with a considerable number of giant spines. The dendritic and spinal alterations were closely associated with mitochondrial alterations.