History
In 1892 Blocq and Marinesco first described the presence of plaque deposits in grey matter. As a result of their similarity to actinomyces druses, they were called druse necrosis by Oskar Fischer during the early 20th century. The connection between plaques and demential illness was discovered by Alois Alzheimer in 1906. By 1911 Bielschowsky proposed the amyloid-nature of plaque deposits. Wisniewski coined the term neuritic plaques in 1973. The second half of the 20th century saw proposed theories of immunological and genetic factors in plaque formation. Statistical investigations were performed by J.A.N. Corsellis and M. Franke in the 1970s. M. Franke showed that a demential disease is likely to occur when the number of senile plaques in the frontal cortex is more than 200/mm3. By 1985 beta amyloid formations were successfully identified through biochemical techniques, though many unsolved questions about the importance and formation of senile plaques remained.
Read more about this topic: Senile Plaques
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