Cadaveric Brain Pathologies: A Case Series

There are a wide variety of neurological diseases that lead to significant morbidity and mortality in the United States. In general, the burden of almost all neurological disorders has increased over the last few decades largely due to the aging of the population. These disorders include, but are not limited to, neurodegenerative, vascular, metabolic and neoplastic disease processes. Each of these have their own distinct histological features which aid in diagnosis and treatment. The aim of this study was to identify those different histological features associated with these neurological pathologies. To achieve this goal, the brains of 5 cadavers were dissected and samples of the frontal lobe, temporal lobe and hippocampus of each brain were taken, totalling 3 samples per cadaver. Samples were collected from cadavers with confirmed diagnoses of Pick’s disease, cerebrovascular disease, metabolic encephalopathy and glioblastoma multiforme. One normal brain was used as a control specimen. One limiting factor for both diagnosis and treatment with many of these diseases is that oftentimes samples cannot be taken until the patient suffering from the disease has expired. The identification of these distinct histological features could aid in research, which could improve outcomes for future patients.