A Commentary on the Diagnostic Criteria for the Neuropathological Assessment of Alzheimer’s Disease

Apart from providing a potential framework for a universally acceptable protocol for the pathological diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, the Working Party has dispelled one of the major myths of so-called normal aging, namely that minor degrees of Alzheimer-type change (i.e., plaques and tangles) are not the product of growing older alone but should always be regarded as pathological, as they probably represent the tissue substrate of incipient Alzheimer’s disease. Establishment of the pathological criteria for such preclinical disease will be of equal importance as that associated with clinical change.