Yonsei Med J.  2018 Dec;59(10):1197-1204. 10.3349/ymj.2018.59.10.1197.

The Brain Donation Program in South Korea

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Neurology, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. sangwonseo@empas.com
  • 2Department of Neurology, Kangwon National University Hospital, Kangwon National University College of Medicine, Chuncheon, Korea.
  • 3Department of Pathology, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. yl.suh@samsung.com
  • 4Department of Pathology, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
  • 5Administarative Office, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Suwon, Korea.
  • 6Neuroscience Center, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
  • 7Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea.
  • 8Department of Forensic Medicine, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Yangsan, Korea.
  • 9Department of Neurology, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Korea.
  • 10Department of Neurology, Jeju National University College of Medicine, Jeju, Korea.
  • 11Department of Forensic Medicine, Jeju National University College of Medicine, Jeju, Korea.
  • 12Division of Brain Diseases, Center for Biomedical Sciences, Korea National Institute of Health, Cheongju, Korea.
  • 13Department of Neurology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, Korea.
  • 14Department of Pathology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, Korea.
  • 15Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Brain Science and Engineering Institute, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea.
  • 16Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Ajou University, Suwon, Korea.
  • 17Memory and Aging Center, Departments of Neurology and Pathology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
  • 18Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Suwon, Korea.

Abstract

PURPOSE
Obtaining brain tissue is critical to definite diagnosis and to furthering understanding of neurodegenerative diseases. The present authors have maintained the National Neuropathology Reference and Diagnostic Laboratories for Dementia in South Korea since 2016. We have built a nationwide brain bank network and are collecting brain tissues from patients with neurodegenerative diseases. We are aiming to facilitate analyses of clinic-pathological and image-pathological correlations of neurodegenerative disease and to broaden understanding thereof.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We recruited participants through two routes: from memory clinics and the community. As a baseline evaluation, clinical interviews, a neurological examination, laboratory tests, neuropsychological tests, and MRI were undertaken. Some patients also underwent amyloid PET.
RESULTS
We recruited 105 participants, 70 from clinics and 35 from the community. Among them, 11 died and were autopsied. The clinical diagnoses of the autopsied patients included four with Alzheimer's disease (AD), two with subcortical vascular dementia, two with non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia, one with leukoencephalopathy, one with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and one with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Five patients underwent amyloid PET: two with AD, one with mixed dementia, one with FTD, and one with CJD.
CONCLUSION
The clinical and neuropathological information to be obtained from this cohort in the future will provide a deeper understanding of the neuropathological mechanisms of cognitive impairment in Asia, especially Korea.

Keyword

Neuropathology; brain autopsy; Alzheimer's disease; frontotemporal dementia; amyloid

MeSH Terms

Alzheimer Disease
Amyloid
Aphasia, Primary Progressive
Asia
Brain*
Cognition Disorders
Cohort Studies
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome
Dementia
Dementia, Vascular
Diagnosis
Frontotemporal Dementia
Humans
Korea*
Leukoencephalopathies
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Memory
Neurodegenerative Diseases
Neurologic Examination
Neuropathology
Neuropsychological Tests
Amyloid

Figure

  • Fig. 1 (A) Flow chart of the overall recruitment process for brain donation. (B) Flow chart of the recruitment process for brain donation from the community.

  • Fig. 2 Clinical diagnosis of participants recruited from clinics. AD, Alzheimer's disease; FTD, frontotemporal dementia; MCI, mild cognitive impairment; NC, normal cognition; PD, Parkinson's disease; VCI, vascular cognitive impairment; Others, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (n=1), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (n=1), leukoencephalopathy (n=2), and epilepsy (n=2).


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