Brain Accumulation of Amyloid-beta in Non-Alzheimer Neurodegeneration.

We report an unusual case of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) marked by extensive cerebral amyloid-beta deposition in small and medium-size vessels, capillaries, and perivascular plaques in the cerebral cortex, and in most leptomeningeal vessels. Despite considerable cerebral amyloidosis, the patient remained cognitively intact until death. For comparison with other neuro-degenerative diseases and normal aging, we assessed the densities of amyloid-beta-immunoreactive cortical vessels and plaques in matched frontal and temporal lobe sections from archival uncomplicated cases of Alzheimer's disease (N=10), Pick's disease (PkD; N=4), Parkinson's disease (PD; N=6), Diffuse Lewy body disease (DLBD; N=7), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP; N=5), multiple systems atrophy (MSA; N=4), ALS (N=7), or normal aging (N=10) by semi-quantitative grading (0 to 3+).