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Lookup NU author(s): Professor John O'Brien
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Dementia is a common and growing problem, affecting 5% of the over 65s and 20% of the over 80s. The recent availability of new treatments for dementia, as well as the importance of subtype-specific management, has renewed interest in the use of brain imaging techniques that can assist in the accurate recognition of Alzheimer's disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), vascular dementia (VaD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Structural imaging, historically used to exclude an intracerebral lesion as a cause for dementia, is increasingly playing a role in "ruling in" diagnoses, with atrophy of the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex an early and sensitive marker for AD, and cortical and subcortical infarcts and white matter lesions characteristic of VaD. Regionally distinct patterns of hypoperfusion on single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) or hypometabolism on positron emission tomography (PET) can help differentiate FTD, AD and VaD, and dopaminergic loss in the basal ganglia can differentiate DLB from AD. Newer techniques show great promise to detect specific neuroreceptor changes as well as pathological underpinnings of dementia, such as amyloid and tau pathology. © 2007 The British Institute of Radiology.
Author(s): O'Brien JT
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: British Journal of Radiology
Year: 2007
Volume: 80
Issue: 2
Pages: S71-S77
Print publication date: 01/01/2007
ISSN (print): 0007-1285
ISSN (electronic): 0961-2653
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1259/bjr/33117326
DOI: 10.1259/bjr/33117326
PubMed id: 18445747
