Hippocampal Sclerosis and Epilepsy in Elderly Population

Abstract

Objective: In temporal lobe epilepsy, hippocampal sclerosis (HS) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathological alterations in the hippocampus are frequently observed. Methods: We assessed the clinicopathological characteristics of 30 aged subjects with HS originating from a large unselected autopsy cohort including 1,388 individuals. Results: Overall, in 22 subjects AD related pathology and in 17 subjects TDP43 pathology, from mild, moderate to severe was seen. Five subjects out of 30 (17%) with HS had epilepsy. Conclusion: A higher percentage compared to the reported prevalence of epilepsy in 0.6 percent of the adult population was observed, but more post mortem studies are urgently needed to investigate the pathological substrate for epilepsy in AD.