title: Functional brain imaging and Alzheimer-type dementia.
abstract: Alzheimer disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder consisting of memory impairment and intellectual function that produces not only profound disabilities in the patient, but a significant cost to society as well. The biochemical basis for Alzheimer disease is not completely understood, but both positron-emission tomography and single-photon-emission computed tomography provide insights into the in vivo biochemistry associated with this disease. Both techniques show characteristic brain abnormalities, which consist of reductions in temporal-parietal metabolism that progress in severity and extent as the disease itself shows clinical progression. Such noninvasive biochemical assays may ultimately prove to be of assistance in clinical management, and are clearly helpful in understanding the pathophysiologic mechanisms associated with the production of this disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles.
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Guze
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hoffman
authors.forename: L R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Baxter
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Mazziotta
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Phelps
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D003847:Deoxyglucose / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
chemical_list: D003847:Deoxyglucose; D005947:Glucose