title: Diagnosing the frontal variant of Alzheimer's disease: a clinician's yellow brick road.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Disruption of the frontal lobes and its associated networks are a common consequence of neurodegenerative disorders. Given the wide range of cognitive, behavioral and motor processes in which the frontal lobes are involved, there can be a great variety of manifestations depending on the pathology distribution. The most common are the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and the frontal variant of Alzheimer's disease (fvAD), which are particularly challenging to disentangle. Recognizing fvAD from bvFTD-related pathologies is a diagnostic challenge and a critical need in the management and counseling of these patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Here we present three pathology-proven cases of Alzheimer's disease initially misdiagnosed as bvFTD and discuss the distinctive or less overlapping historical, examination, and laboratory findings of fvAD and bvFTD, deriving analogies for mnemonic endurance from the Wizard of Oz worldview.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Yellow Brick Road to diagnosing these disorders may be served by the metaphor of fvAD as the irritable, paranoid, and tremulous Scarecrow and bvFTD the heartless, ritualistic, and rigid Tin Man. An Oz-inspired creative license may help the clinician recognize the differential disease progression, caregiver burden, and treatment response of fvAD compared with bvFTD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Cincinnati, 260 Stetson Street Suite 2300, Cincinnati, OH 45219 USA.
authors.forename: Russell P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Sawyer
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Cincinnati, 260 Stetson Street Suite 2300, Cincinnati, OH 45219 USA.|UC Memory Disorders Center, University of Cincinnati, 234 Goodman Street, Cincinnati, OH 45219 USA.|Gardner Family Center for Parkinson's disease and Movement Disorders, University of Cincinnati, 234 Goodman Street, Cincinnati, OH 45219 USA.
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rodriguez-Porcel
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Cincinnati, 234 Goodman Street, Cincinnati, OH 45219-0533 USA.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hagen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Cincinnati, 260 Stetson Street Suite 2300, Cincinnati, OH 45219 USA.|UC Memory Disorders Center, University of Cincinnati, 234 Goodman Street, Cincinnati, OH 45219 USA.
authors.forename: Rhonna
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shatz
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Cincinnati, 260 Stetson Street Suite 2300, Cincinnati, OH 45219 USA.|Gardner Family Center for Parkinson's disease and Movement Disorders, University of Cincinnati, 234 Goodman Street, Cincinnati, OH 45219 USA.
authors.forename: Alberto J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Espay
keywords: Behavioral disorder; Frontal variant of Alzheimer’s disease; Frontotemporal Dementia; Movement disorders; Parkinsonism