Primary age-related tauopathy (PART): relationships with senile dementia of the neurofibrillary tangle type (SD-NFT) and pathological process of Alzheimer’s disease

Masahito Yamada

Department of Neurology and Neurobiology of Aging, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Sciences

A subset of older individuals with or without dementia are characterized by neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) in the medial temporal lobe and absence of Aβ deposition in the brain. In 1996, the author's group reported senile dementia of the NFT type as a disease entity characterized by these pathological features as well as late-onset dementia in older subjects. In 2014, it was proposed that this pathological condition, irrespective of the presence of cognitive impairment, is referred to as primary age-related tauopathy (PART). SD-NFT is a dementing disease due to severe PART pathology. This article reviews PART/SD-NFT as a background of SNAP ［suspected non-Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathophysiology］ in the differential diagnosis of AD, clinicopathological features of PART/SD-NFT, and relationships of PART/SD-NFT with AD pathogenesis.

Address correspondence to Dr. Masahito Yamada, Department of Neurology and Neurobiology of Aging, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Sciences (13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8640, Japan)