Frontal assessment battery and brain perfusion imaging in early dementia.
OBJECTIVE
The frontal assessment battery (FAB) is reported to be a useful tool for screening frontal function. However, the neural substrates involved remain to be elucidated. The aim of the present study was to identify the brain regions responsible for FAB performance in patients with early dementia. We sought a correlation between FAB scores and brain perfusion.


METHODS
A total of 117 subjects participated in this study (Alzheimer's disease = 51, frontotemporal dementia = 14, vascular dementia = 13, dementia with Lewy bodies = 7, psychiatric disease = 7, mild cognitive impairment = 11, controls = 14). They underwent brain single photon emission computed tomography with (99m)Tc-ethylcisteinate dimer, and we analyzed the data, using a regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) quantification software program, 3DSRT (3-dimensional stereotaxic region of interest template).


RESULTS
FAB scores had a moderately positive correlation with left callosomarginal and precentral rCBF. Comparison of rCBF between high- and low-scoring FAB groups revealed that the latter showed significantly lower rCBF in the bilateral callosomarginal and left precentral regions.


CONCLUSIONS
The results in this study suggest that the FAB mainly reflects the function of the callosomarginal and precentral segments, especially the left side, and that it might be a valid frontal lobe function test.
Yoshida
Hidenori
H
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan.
Terada
Seishi
S
Sato
Shuhei
S
Kishimoto
Yuki
Y
Ata
Toshie
T
Ohshima
Etsuko
E
Honda
Hajime
H
Ishihara
Takeshi
T
Kuroda
Shigetoshi
S
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004493:Education; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon