Nucl Med Mol Imaging.  2007 Apr;41(2):102-111.

FDG PET Imaging For Dementia

• Ahn BC

Abstract

Dementia is a major burden for many countries including South Korea, where life expectancy is continuously growing and the proportion of aged people is rapidly growing. Neurodegenerative disorders, such as, Alzheimer disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal degeneration, Huntington disease, can cause dementia, and cerebrovascular disease also can cause dementia. Depression or hypothyroidism also can cause cognitive deficits, but they are reversible by management of underlying cause unlike the forementioned dementias. Therefore these are called pseudodementia. We are entering an era of dementia care that will be based upon the identification of potentially modifiable risk factors and early disease markers, and the application of new drugs postpone progression of dementias or target specific proteins that cause dementia. Efficient pharmacologic treatment of dementia needs not only to distinguish underlying causes of dementia but also to be installed as soon as possible. Therefore, differential diagnosis and early diagnosis of dementia are utmost importance. F-18 FDG PET is useful for clarifying dementing diseases and is also useful for early detection of the diseases. Purpose of this article is to review the current value of FDG PET for dementing diseases including differential diagnosis of dementia and prediction of evolving dementia.

Keyword

FDG; PET; diagnosis; dementia; pseudodementia; alzheimer disease; frontotemporal dementia; vascular dementia; dementia with lewy bodies

MeSH Terms

Alzheimer Disease
Dementia*
Dementia, Vascular
Depression
Diagnosis
Diagnosis, Differential
Early Diagnosis
Factitious Disorders
Frontotemporal Dementia
Huntington Disease
Hypothyroidism
Korea
Lewy Bodies
Life Expectancy
Neurodegenerative Diseases
Parkinson Disease
Risk Factors
Supranuclear Palsy, Progressive