Estimating premorbid cognitive abilities in low-educated populations.

Objective: To develop an informant-based instrument that would provide a valid estimate of premorbid cognitive abilities in low-educated populations.

Methods: A questionnaire was drafted by focusing on the premorbid period with a 10-year time frame. The initial pool of items was submitted to classical test theory and a factorial analysis.

Morphometric brain changes during aging: Results from a Brazilian necropsy sample.

Unlabelled: The present study aimed to establish the morphometric brain changes during aging in a necropsy series from Brazil and determine whether sexual dimorphisms interfere in these changes.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the São Paulo Autopsy Service in Brazil where, after informed consent, data was gathered from next of kin interview with reference to clinical status prior to death. Brain weight, volume and density measurements were taken and then adjusted for head circumference.

Post-Mortem diagnosis of dementia by informant interview.

Unlabelled: The diagnosis of normal cognition or dementia in the Brazilian Brain Bank of the Aging Brain Study Group (BBBABSG) has relied on postmortem interview with an informant.

Objectives: To ascertain the sensitivity and specificity of postmortem diagnosis based on informant interview compared against the diagnosis established at a memory clinic.

Methods: A prospective study was conducted at the BBBABSG and at the Reference Center for Cognitive Disorders (RCCD), a specialized memory clinic of the Hospital das Clínicas, University of São Paulo Medical School.

Improved detection of incipient vascular changes by a biotechnological platform combining post mortem MRI in situ with neuropathology.

The histopathological counterpart of white matter hyperintensities is a matter of debate. Methodological and ethical limitations have prevented this question to be elucidated. We want to introduce a protocol applying state-of-the-art methods in order to solve fundamental questions regarding the neuroimaging-neuropathological uncertainties comprising the most common white matter hyperintensities [WMHs] seen in aging.

Clinicopathological correlates of Alzheimer's disease in a general autopsy series from Brazil.

Unlabelled: The current neuropathological staging models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been developed within the last 20 years. Nevertheless, they were mostly tested on Caucasians of Northern European ancestry or on Asians.

Objective: To verify which of the accepted neuropathologic criteria best discriminates AD from normal aging in a well characterized Brazilian clinicopathological series.

Brain bank of the Brazilian aging brain study group - a milestone reached and more than 1,600 collected brains.

Introduction: Brain banking remains a necessity for the study of aging brain processes and related neurodegenerative diseases. In the present paper, we report the methods applied at and the first results of the Brain Bank of the Brazilian Aging Brain Study Group (BBBABSG) which has two main aims: (1) To collect a large number of brains of elderly comprising non-demented subjects and a large spectrum of pathologies related to aging brain processes, (2) To provide quality material to a multidisciplinar research network unraveling multiple aspects of aging brain processes and related neurodegenerative diseases.

Methods: The subjects are selected from the Sao Paulo Autopsy Service.