Research

Much of the work in this department is concerned with the clinicopathological study of various neurological disorders, especially incurable ones. Concretely, autopsy material is examined by various histological methods, and correlations between clinical, neuroradiological, neurophysiological and pathological findings are investigated to clarify the etiology and pathogenesis of neurological disorders and contribute to the development of treatment or rehabilitation method.
Histological specimens from more than 1,600 human patients with various neurological disorders, including the whole sections of cerebrum, are filed together with clinical records and are available for neuropathological reference. They cover almost all kinds of neurological and related disorders, and are utilized by many medical researchers and doctors, including staffs in the affiliated hospitals.
The research in this Department is presently focused on:

Outline of Projects

Our current research concerns elucidation of the following issues:

1. Aging and degenerative processes in dementia and neurological disorders.
2. Pathogenesis of developmental brain disorders.
3. Pathology of surgical specimens from epileptic patients.
4. Brain impairments induced by a noxious virus.
5. Neuro-glial interaction in human neurological disorders.
6. Pathology of brain tumor.

Fig.1 Coronal section of the cerebrum in Klüver-Barrera stain disclosed convolution abnormality (smooth surface) in lissencephaly type I.

Fig.2 Tufts-shaped astrocytes (abnormal glial cells) visualized by the recently developed Gallyas-Braak method.

Staff