Comparison of grey matter and metabolic reductions in frontotemporal dementia using FDG-PET and voxel-based morphometric MR studies.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to investigate the regional differences between the morphologic and functional changes in the same patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) using statistical parametric mapping and voxel-based morphometry (VBM).


METHODS
Thirteen FTD patients (mean age, 64.9 years old; mean MMSE score, 17.7), 20 sex-matched Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (mean age, 65.0 years old; mean MMSE score, 17.5), and 20 normal volunteers (mean age, 65.2 years old; mean MMSE score, 29.0) underwent both [(18)F]FDG positron emission tomography and three-dimensional spoiled gradient echo MRI. Statistical parametric mapping was used to conduct a VBM analysis of the morphologic data, which were compared voxel by voxel with the results of a similar analysis of glucose metabolic data.


RESULTS
FTD patients showed decreased grey matter volume and decreased glucose metabolism in the frontal lobe and anterior temporal lobe. In addition, there was a clear asymmetry in grey matter volume in FTD patients by the VBM analysis while the glucose metabolic data showed little asymmetry. In AD patients, glucose metabolic reduction occurred in the bilateral posterior cingulate gyri and parietal lobules while grey matter density decreased the least in the same patients.


CONCLUSIONS
In FTD, metabolic and morphologic changes occur in the bilateral frontal lobe and temporal lobe with a limited asymmetry whereas there was considerable discordance in the AD group.
Kanda
Tomonori
T
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Hyogo Brain and Heart Center, Himeji, Hyogo, Japan.
Ishii
Kazunari
K
Uemura
Takafumi
T
Miyamoto
Naokazu
N
Yoshikawa
Toshiki
T
Kono
Atsushi K
AK
Mori
Etsuro
E
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography
D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18