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Pick Disease
This is an uncommon cause for dementia, but it appears similar to
Alzheimer disease. The cerebral atrophy with Pick disease is lobar and
typically involves the frontal and temporal lobes. This atrophy is so
striking that it is "knife-like" in appearance. This atrophy may be
asymmetrical. Microscopically, there is marked loss of cortical neurons
with gliosis. Pick bodies, cytoplasmic inclusions that are highlighted by
silver stain, are seen in the cortex.
Mutations in the tau gene which codes for tau, a protein that is
associated with microtubules, can be found in Pick disease. The
abnormal tau may be present in the microscopically apparent Pick
bodies, which have partially degraded (called ubiquitinated, since they
are positive with immunohistochemical staining for ubiquitin) tau fibrils.
(Perl, 2000)