Dementia in the Aspect of SPECT Brain Examination

Overview

The recent advances in the pharmacological treatment of some subtypes of dementia, especially Alzheimer’s disease, lead to an increase of interest to this category of diseases during the last years. Therefore efforts oriented towards an early and correct evaluation of dementia are still of topical interest. The clinical symptomatology remains still the crucial point in the differential diagnostic procedure. Functional brain imaging using the method of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) may contribute to adjust the diagnosis by the finding of a typical pattern of cerebral blood perfusion. The authors present characteristic professional aspects in relation to the most frequent disease with cognitive impairment. SPECT is most useful in the differentiation of Alzheimer’s disease from vascular or frontotemporal dementia. Conversely, this examination is only of limited interest if doubts persist between Alzheimer’s and Lewy body disease or between vascular and frontotemporal dementia, because of frequent overlapping findings and low revealing values.

Key words:
dementia - SPECT of the brain - differential diagnosis