1991 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 145-151
The purpose of this study is to clarify the clinical and pathological characteristics of cerebrovascular disease in nonagenarians and centenarians. In all autopsied cases from 1981 to 1986 (60-101 years old, 138 men and 157 women), cerebrovascular disease was observed in 32 cases (90-101 years old, 8 men and 24 women) and 174 cases (60∼89 years old, 95 men and 79 women) in our hospital. The incidence of cerebrovascular disease was 58.3%, 68.8%, 75.1% and 64%, pathologically, in their sixties (60's), seventies (70's), eighties (80's) and over nineties (90's) respectively. In those who had cerebrovascular disease, cerebral infarctions were found in 79.9% of the cases of the under-90 group and 81.2% of cases of the over-90 group. In both groups, infarction was mainly found in over 2 regions, in the putamen, caudate, thalamus and in the white matter and cortex of the frontal lobe. In the over-90 group, the medium-sized infarctions decreased and small-sized infarctions increased. Cerebral hemorrhages were found in 16.1% of cases in the under-90 group and 12.6% of cases in the over-90 group. In the over-90 group, large-sized hemorrhages were found in 75%, and the incidence of hemorrhages was 50%, 50% in the lentiform nucleus and the subcortex respectively. The frequency of mental symptoms, frontal signs and oral dyskinesia in the over-90 group was significantly higher than in the under-90 group. The onset of cerebrovascular attacks was unknown in 43.8% cases. All of these cases were patients with infarctions. The frequency of hypertension in those patients with cerebrovascular disease was significantly higher than in those without it. In conclusion, in the over-90 group, multiple and small-sized infarctions were found, representing cerebrovascular attacks which had not been diagnosed. However hypertension might reasonably be considered a contributing factor to the occurrence of cerebrovascular disease.
