Emission Imaging in Dementia

Abstract

Dementia is typically associated with progressive impairments in memory and cognition that are beyond what is expected during the normal aging process; these impairments can also be accompanied by behavioral abnormalities. Age is a strong risk factor for dementia and dementia has become increasingly prevalent with longer life expectancy. The most common dementia types are Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and frontotemporal dementia. The clinical and neuropathological features of these disorders can often overlap. Over several decades, neuromethods' progress and improvements in the understanding of biological, neuropsychological, and neuropathological features of dementia have fueled developments of more precise, feasible, and robust methods for dementia research and therapeutic strategies. Emission neuroimaging in dementias has uniquely identified abnormal in vivo patterns of perfusion, metabolism, neurotransmitter system function, and accumulation of neuropathological aggregates. Individual and combined imaging outcomes have been identified that improve dementia diagnosis, differentiation of dementia subtypes, and our understanding of the natural history of these diseases. Important knowledge is being gained from correlative studies of antemortem in vivo imaging and postmortem pathology measures. These efforts will help to achieve earliest detection in presymptomatic individuals who have yet to develop extensive neurodegeneration and who may benefit most from therapeutic intervention. (copyright) 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York.