Alois Alzheimer (1864–1915) and the Alzheimer syndrome

Abstract

Alois Alzheimer is known for his seminal work in recognizing a form of presenile dementia. His early interests were natural history and botany. He started his medical education in Berlin and attended the universities of Wurzburg and Tübingen. Nissl and Alzheimer worked together on extensive investigation of the pathology of the nervous system, especially the anatomy of the cerebral cortex. In 1902 Emil Kraepelin invited Alzheimer to work with him in the university psychiatric clinic in Heidelberg. In 1903 both moved to work in the university psychiatric clinic in Munich. It was during these years that Alzheimer described the Alzheimer's disease. He also described brain changes in arteriosclerosis, loss of nerve cells in Huntington's disease in the corpus striatum and brain changes in epilepsy. Alzheimer presented a preliminary report of his histological findings in 1906 at Tübingen about a 51-year-old lady who had developed presenile dementia and died within four years of onset of the disease. He published his findings in 1907, reporting the atrophic brain with neurofibrillary deposits and areas in the cerebrum resistant to staining. During the later years of his career Alzheimer concentrated on the study of changes in glial cells. His best-known works from this period were on Westphal-Strümpell pseudo-sclerosis of the brain, now assumed to be the same as Wilson's Disease. His death, at age 51, was the result of cardiac failure following endocarditis.