{{Infobox Medical Person
|name =Aloysius Alzheimer
|image =Alzheimer-tablica.JPG
|box_width =
|image_width =
|caption =The plaque for Alois Alzheimer in Wrocław
|birth_date ={{birth date|1864|6|14|mf=y}}
|birth_place =[[Marktbreit]], [[Bavaria]]
|death_date ={{death date and age|1915|12|19|1864|6|14|mf=y}}
|death_place =[[Wrocław|Breslau]], [[Silesia]]
|profession =[[Psychiatrist]], [[Physician]]
|specialism =[[Neuropathology]]
|research_field =
|known_for =First published case of "presenile [[dementia]]" ([[Alzheimer's disease]])
|years_active =
|education =[[University of Tübingen]]<br>[[University of Würzburg]]
|work_institutions =City Mental Asylum, [[Frankfurt am Main]]
|prizes =
|relations =
}}
'''Aloysius "Alois" Alzheimer''' (born [[14 June]] [[1864]], [[Marktbreit]], [[Bavaria]]; died [[19 December]] [[1915]], [[Wrocław|Breslau]], [[Silesia]]) was a [[Germany|German]] [[psychiatrist]] and [[neuropathologist]] and a colleague of [[Emil Kraepelin]]. Alzheimer is credited with the first published case of "presenile dementia", which Kraepelin would later identify as [[Alzheimer's disease]].

Alzheimer's father served in the office of notary public in the family's hometown. Alzheimer attended [[Aschaffenburg]], [[University of Tübingen|Tübingen]], [[Berlin]], and [[University of Würzburg|Würzburg]] universities. He received a medical degree at Würzburg University in [[1887]]. In the following year, he spent five months assisting mentally ill women, before he took an office in the city mental asylum in [[Frankfurt am Main]]: the Städtische Anstalt für Irre und Epileptische (Asylum for lunatics and epileptics). [[Emil Sioli]] was the dean of that asylum ([[1852]]-[[1922]]). Another neurologist, [[Franz Nissl]] ([[1860]]-[[1919]]), began to work in that same asylum with Alzheimer, and they knew each other.
Much of Alzheimer's later work on brain pathology made use of Nissl's method of silver staining of the [[histological]] sections. Alzheimer was the co-founder and co-publisher of the journal ''Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie''. He never wrote a book that he could call his own.
[[Image:Auguste D aus Marktbreit.jpg|thumb|left|Auguste Deter]]
In [[1901]], Alzheimer observed a patient at the Frankfurt Asylum named Mrs. Auguste Deter. The 51-year-old patient had strange behavioral symptoms, including a loss of short-term memory. This patient would become his obsession over the coming years. In April 1906, Mrs. D. died and Alzheimer had the patient records and the brain sent to Munich where he was working at Kraepelin's lab. Together with two Italian physicians, he would use the staining techniques to identify [[amyloid]] plaques and [[neurofibrillary tangles]]. A speech given on [[3 November]] [[1906]] would be the first time the pathology and the clinical symptoms of presenile dementia would be presented together.<ref name="AlzBook">{{cite book | author =Maurer K., Maurer U. | title = Alzheimer: The Life of a Physician and Career of a Disease | publisher = Columbia University Press| date = 2003 | location = New York | id = ISBN 0-231-11896-1 }}</ref> Through extremely fortunate circumstances the original microscope preparations on which Alzheimer based his description of the disease were rediscovered some years ago in Munich and his findings could thus be reevaluated.<ref name="Graeber">{{cite journal | author = Graeber MB, Koesel S, Egensperger R, Banati RB, Mueller U, Bise K, Hoff P, Moeller HJ, Fujisawa K, Mehraein P | title = Rediscovery of the case described by Alois Alzheimer in 1911: historical, histological and molecular genetic analysis. journal = Neurogenetics | volume = 1 | pages = 73-80 | year = 1997}}</ref>.

Since [[German language|German]] was the common language of science and especially of Psychology of the time, Kraepelin's use of Alzheimer's disease in a textbook would make the name famous. By 1911, the disease was being used by European physicians to diagnose patients in the US. <ref name="AlzBook"/>

In mid-December 1915, Alzheimer fell ill on the train on the way to the University of Breslau, where he had been appointed professor of psychiatry in 1912. Most probably he had a [[streptococcal]] infection and subsequent [[rheumatic fever]] and [[kidney failure]]. He died of [[heart failure]] at the age of 51 in [[Breslau]].

== External links ==
{{commons|Alois Alzheimer|Alois Alzheimer}}
* [http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/177.html/ Who Named It? - Alois Alzheimer]
* [http://www.ibro.info/Pub_Main_Display.asp?Main_Id=34 Alois Alzheimer's Biography, International Brain Research Organization]
* [http://www.med.uni-muenchen.de/haass Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Laboratory for Neurodegenerative Disease Research - Prof. Dr. Christian Haass]
* [http://www.yorku.ca/ahp/?p=30 Bibliography of secondary sources] on Alois Alzheimer and Alzheimer's disease, selected from peer-reviewed journals.

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:German neuroscientists|Alzheimer, Alois]]
[[Category:Alzheimer's disease|Alzheimer, Alois]]
[[Category:1864 births|Alzheimer, Alois]]
[[Category:1915 deaths|Alzheimer, Alois]]
[[Category:People from Wrocław|Alzheimer, Alois]]

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