Neuroimaging in the diagnosis of dementia

Abstract

Dementia is a common disease, affecting 14% of the over 65s with numbers steadily increasing. The recent development of brain imaging techniques have contributed to the better diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB),vascular dementia (VaD),frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and corti-cobasal degeneration (CBD).Structural imaging, previously used to exclude non-degenerative causes for dementia, is becoming increasingly important in the diagnostic procedure. Atrophy of the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex suggests the presence of AD, and cortical and subcortical infarcts and white matter lesions are characteristic of VaD. Disease-specific patterns of regional hypoperfusion on single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) or hypometabolism on positron emission tomography (PET) could further help differentiate degenerative dementia. Newer techniques show great promise to detect the pathological basis of dementia, such as amyloid in AD. This review describes the use of these imaging techniques in dementia. Together, these imaging techniques will be useful tools for early diagnosis, disease monitoring, and consequently contribute to developing effective treatments for dementia.