Overview of neurodegenerative disorders associated with dementia: role of MRI

Abstract

Dementia is a syndrome leading to deterioration in cognitive function beyond what might be expected from normal ageing The most common dementia syndromes include Alzheimer s disease AD frontotemporal lobe degeneration FTLD and vascular Dementia VaD Neuroimaging including CT and MRI have a key role in early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases MRI is the corner stone modality and has superior role in detecting dementia associated abnormalities like atrophy of hippocampus medial temporal lobe or that of parietal lobe Vascular related changes including including white matter lesions lacunar infarcts or strategic infarcts can also be better assessed on MRI Early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases can lead to early start of therapy with improved clinical outcome