Concepts of senile dementia of the neurofibrillary tangle type (SD-NFT) and primary age-related tauopathy (PART)

Masahito Yamada

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

Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) are commonly observed in older people with or without cognitive impairment. The author reported in 1996 that a subset of older individuals with dementia have a large amount of NFTs mainly in the hippocampal region without amyloid (Aβ) plaques, referred to as “senile dementia of the NFT type (SD-NFT)”, a novel disease entity. Recently, an international collaborative group, including the author, has proposed a new term, “primary age-related tauopathy” (PART), to describe age-related tangle pathology, clinically encompassing a wide spectrum from normal cognition to mild cognitive impairment and dementia (SD-NFT). The nomenclature of “PART” would provide a conceptual foundation for future studies leading to development of clinical diagnosis as well as pathogenesis of this condition.

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)