Cited by 3,092Dementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchAlzheimer's disease research and treatmentsNeuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms

National Institute on Aging–Alzheimer's Association guidelines for the neuropathologic assessment of Alzheimer's disease

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Hyman, Bradley T., Phelps, Creighton H., Beach, Thomas G., Bigio, Eileen H., Cairns, Nigel J., Carrillo, Maria C., Dickson, Dennis W., Duyckaerts, Charles +10 more·2012·Alzheimer's & Dementia

Abstract

A consensus panel from the United States and Europe was convened recently to update and revise the 1997 consensus guidelines for the neuropathologic evaluation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other diseases of brain that are common in the elderly. The new guidelines recognize the pre‐clinical stage of AD, enhance the assessment of AD to include amyloid accumulation as well as neurofibrillary change and neuritic plaques, establish protocols for the neuropathologic assessment of Lewy body disease, vascular brain injury, hippocampal sclerosis, and TDP‐43 inclusions, and recommend standard approaches for the workup of cases and their clinico‐pathologic correlation.

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Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.jalz.2011.10.007

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  • Clinically, there is a long prodromal stage in AD prior to irreversible progressive decline of cognition.

    “Clinically, there is a long, prodromal stage in AD prior to the irreversibly progressive decline of cognition (Hyman et al., 2012).”

    From Deep Multilayer Brain Proteomics Identifies Molecular Networks in Alzheimer’s Disease Progression (2020) · cites this paper as Hyman et al., 2012

    The “Revised Neuropathologic criteria for Alzheimer’s disease” section describes a preclinical phase and says AD processes can be present well before cognitive deficits. It does not establish that this stage is long or that subsequent cognitive decline is irreversible and progressive. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • The 2012 NIA-AA Guidelines use an ABC scoring system requiring amyloid plaques and tau neurofibrillary tangles to describe AD neuropathological change from none to low to intermediate to high.

    “The current criteria use an ABC scoring system that requires the presence of amyloid plaques and tau neurofibrillary tangles to describe the amount of AD neuropathological change ranging from none to low to intermediate to high amounts of change.”

    From The neuropathological diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (2019) · cites this paper as [69]

    The Classification and Reporting sections establish the ABC system and its four levels of AD neuropathologic change. But physical presence of both amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles is not required to assign a score: Classification defines zero scores for absent lesions, and Reporting gives A1, B0, C0 as an example. The system also scores neuritic plaques as its C component. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Both Aβ and paired helical filament (PHF) tau deposits are required to fulfill neuropathologic criteria for AD.

    “However, both Aβ and paired helical filament (PHF) tau deposits are required to fulfill neuropathologic criteria for AD [105,106]”

    From NIA‐AA Research Framework: Toward a biological definition of Alzheimer's disease (2018) · cites this paper as [106]

    The AD Neuropathologic Change section says neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques are essential for neuropathologic diagnosis; it describes tangles as primarily abnormal tau and plaques as Aβ deposits. It does not specify that the required tau deposits must be paired helical filaments (PHF), so that added specificity is unsupported by our copy. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • The new NIA criteria use the same combination of moderate or frequent neuritic plaques and Braak stage III-VI as the minimum lesion density necessary for attributing the cause of dementia to AD.

    “The new NIA criteria use the same combination of NPs and Braak stage as the minimum lesion density necessary for attributing the cause of dementia to AD (39, 40).”

    From Accuracy of the Clinical Diagnosis of Alzheimer Disease at National Institute on Aging Alzheimer Disease Centers, 2005–2010 (2012) · cites this paper as [39]

    The Classification section defines moderate or frequent neuritic plaques and Braak stages III–VI as scores used by the new criteria. But it requires a third measure, Aβ plaque score, to classify AD neuropathologic change; the Reporting section says an intermediate or high overall level, rather than the stated two-measure combination alone, is an adequate explanation of dementia. Our copy provides no page numbers for these passages. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • The A3B3C3 classification can be interpreted as high, similar to other PSEN1E280A cases.

    “Furthermore, the integration of these pathological assessments following the NIAA guidelines gives a classification of AD neuropathological changes of A3B3C3 [16], that can be interpreted as high, similar to other PSEN1E280A cases.”

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Authors
Hyman, B. T., Phelps, C. H., Beach, T. G., Bigio, E. H., Cairns, N. J., Carrillo, M. C., Dickson, D. W., Duyckaerts, C., Frosch, M. P., Masliah, E., Mirra, S. S., Nelson, P. T., Schneider, J. A., Thal, D. R., Thies, B., Trojanowski, J. Q., Vinters, H. V., & Montine, T. J.
Affiliations
  • Harvard University (US)
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
  • Banner Sun Health Research Institute (US)
  • Northwestern University (US)
  • Washington University in St. Louis (US)
  • Alzheimer's Association Chicago IL USA
  • Mayo Clinic (US)
  • Service de Neuropathologie Raymond Escourolle Hôpital de la Salpêtriére Paris France
  • University of California San Diego (US)
  • SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University (US)
  • University of Kentucky (US)
  • Rush University Medical Center (US)
  • Universität Ulm (DE)
  • Alzheimer's Association (US)
  • University of Pennsylvania (US)
  • University of California, Los Angeles (US)
  • University of Washington (US)
Corresponding author
Montine, Thomas J.
Venue
Alzheimer's & Dementia
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2012-01
Volume
8
Issue
1
Pages
1-13
ISSN
  • 1552-5260 (ISSN-L)
  • 1552-5279
OpenAlex
W2143461767
Cited by
3,092
References
114
Citations by year
2026: 214 · 2025: 285 · 2024: 286 · 2023: 233 · 2022: 260 · 2021: 327 · 2020: 247 · 2019: 228 · 2018: 206 · 2017: 190 · 2016: 170 · 2015: 161 · 2014: 118 · 2013: 115 · 2012: 46
FWCI
98.94
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Alzheimer s & Dementia (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • Alzheimer's Association
  • Arizona Department of Health Services (211002)
  • Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG TH‐624‐4‐1)
  • Alzheimer Forschung Initiative (AFI #10810)
  • Nancy and Buster Alvord Endowment
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
Keywords
Alzheimer's disease
MeSH terms
Alzheimer Disease, Brain, Humans, Societies, Medical, United States, Consensus Development Conferences, NIH as Topic, Practice Guidelines as Topic, National Institute on Aging (U.S.)

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