From Deseret News archives:
U. helps develop a scan to distinguish dementias
Study offers hope in using right medicine to treat right disease
The scan, called an FDG-PET, involves injecting fluorodeoxyglucose, a short-lived radioactive form of sugar, into a PET scan subject to map activity levels in different parts of the brain. The two types of dementia Alzheimer's and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are often hard to differentiate. But while Alzheimer's affects the back part of the brain, impacting memory and spatial thinking, FTD more often affects the front of the brain and language.
With the FDG-PET scan, six doctors from three national Alzheimer's disease centers, including the U.'s Center for Alzheimer's Care, Imaging and Research, could correctly identify the type of dementia in almost 90 percent of cases as much as a 14 percent improvement over what they did using clinical diagnostic methods alone. The study appeared online in the journal Brain.
"It makes sense to treat the right disease with the right medication," he said.
Alzheimer's typically affects people after age 65, although a subset have early onset. For every five years over age 65, the risk of developing it doubles. FTD can affect people in their 40s and 50s, although it's less common overall than Alzheimer's. And FTD is much more likely to be familial, an important fact for people who want to know their risk.
Areas of the brain that are thick or that have lost connections are not going to use up as much of the glucose, which will be visible on the scan.
The study's lead author, Dr. Norman L. Foster, professor of neurology and director of the U.'s Alzheimer's center, called the scan a powerful tool for early treatment of FTD, which besides striking younger people is marked by behavioral changes and trouble with language. It, too, can take years to develop.
Recent comments
When will the VA get on board with this type of testing?
Houston | Dec. 30, 2007 at 10:39 p.m.
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