The Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) Rapid Decline Cohort (Cohen et al. 2015) represents patients with rapid decline. Subjects included in the Case Western Reserve Rapid Decline dataset include individuals who were initially suspected of having Creutzfelt-Jakob disease (CJD). The Brains of these individuals were obtained by the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center (NPDPSC) for testing and confirmation of CJD. Samples are received from across the United States. After testing, these samples were determined not to have CJD, but to have pathology consistent with Alzheimer disease. The usual progression of CJD is quite rapid, so that the vast majority of these individuals progressed from onset to death in less than 3 years. This is an autopsy-based study designed to analyze post-mortem brain tissue. Medical records are obtained when available to help correlate brain behavior relationships.

Participants were classified as either Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia (ADRD; Lewy body Dementia, Frontotemporal dementia) based on description of the brain gross examination and neuropath microscopic description.