Differential regional cerebral uptake of 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia at initial diagnosis

In this paper, the cerebral uptake of F-18-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) was studied in a relatively small group of patients suffering from either clinically diagnosed Alzheimer's disease (AD) or frontotemporal dementia during the initial differential diagnostic workup, The image analysis was done visually and semiquantitatively using three different reference regions. Visual analysis confirmed earlier literature findings on the distribution of decreased FDG uptake and demonstrated prevalent asymmetric patterns in both groups. Only semiquantitative analysis using the sensorimotor cortex as a reference region confirmed the visual findings, Moreover, there were no differences in medial temporal robe activities between both groups, and there was no correlation of medial temporal lobe activity with dementia severity. In the AD group, a correlation of parietal FDG uptake with MMSE scores was found. Copyright 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.