Severe cerebrovascular pathology of the first supercentenarian to be autopsied in the world

We report on a 116‐year‐old Japanese woman who was the first officially documented supercentenarian to be autopsied in the world. She lived a remarkably healthy life until suffering cerebral infarction at 109 years of age. She became Japan's oldest person at 113 years and died in 1995 from colo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuropathology 2023-04, Vol.43 (2), p.181-189
Main Authors: Iwase, Tamaki, Yoshida, Mari, Hashizume, Yoshio, Inagaki, Toshiaki, Iwasaki, Yasushi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged, 80 and over
Alzheimer Disease - pathology
Alzheimer's disease
Autopsy
Brain - pathology
centenarians
Central nervous system diseases
Cerebral infarction
Colon cancer
Dementia disorders
Female
Heart diseases
Humans
Japan
Medical records
Medical treatment
myelopathy
Neurofibrillary tangles
Neurofibrillary Tangles - pathology
Pathology
Senile plaques
Spinal cord
Stroke - pathology
Tau protein
tauopathy
vascular dementia
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Summary:We report on a 116‐year‐old Japanese woman who was the first officially documented supercentenarian to be autopsied in the world. She lived a remarkably healthy life until suffering cerebral infarction at 109 years of age. She became Japan's oldest person at 113 years and died in 1995 from colon cancer at 116 years 175 days. Her medical records show the delayed onset of stroke, cancer, dementia, and heart disease and the importance of appropriate medical treatment and intensive dedicated care provided during the last stage of her life. She was the longest‐lived person in Japan for 21 years from 1993 until 2014. The neuropathological findings of her autopsied brain were briefly reported in the Japanese literature in 1997. In this study, we reinvestigated her brain and spinal cord in more detail. Severe cerebrovascular lesions and cervical spondylotic myelopathy were found to be the main causes of her disability. Although the density of senile plaques was relatively high, the distribution of neurofibrillary tangles was limited. Ghost tangles and argyrophilic grains were mild. The mildness of tau pathological changes in her neurons, in other words the resistance of neurons to tau pathology, may be a factor responsible for her longevity.
ISSN:0919-6544
1440-1789
DOI:10.1111/neup.12874