Neuroimaging in Dementia

Abstract

Dementia is not a diagnosis or a specific disease entity but a syndrome that describes a wide range of symptoms leading to a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life.

Neurodegenerative disorders including dementing disorders and movement disorders may present with overlapping clinical symptoms. Likewise, the underlying molecular and cellular pathology may be overlapping. Consequently, dementia syndromes and movement disorders may be considered as a spectrum of diseases, and symptoms may vary over time. Moreover, there is no direct link between clinical symptoms and imaging findings: the same degree of brain atrophy or metabolic abnormality may be associated to a variable degree of cognitive impairment, or from the other perspective, the same degree of cognitive impairment may be associated with variable level of brain atrophy or metabolic abnormality. Finally, it is not uncommon to have coexisting pathology, for example, Alzheimer type neurodegeneration and a vascular contribution.

In the first part, we review basic clinical presentations of dementia syndromes. In the second part, we review the radiological techniques and typical clinical neuroradiology findings of the various types of dementia, including Alzheimer dementia (hippocampal atrophy, hypometabolism/hypoperfusion in posterior cingulate and bilateral parietal areas), vascular dementia (small and large vessel disease), fronto-temporal lobar degeneration (fronto-temporal/peri-insular atrophy and hypometabolism/hypoperfusion), and dementia with Lewy Bodies (reduced dopamine uptake in striatum, abnormality of the nigrosome1). Additionally, we review unusual clinical presentations of dementia, including young-onset dementia and rapidly progressive dementia. Finally, we briefly discuss the overlapping clinical presentation and underlying pathology between dementia and movement disorders.

This publication is endorsed by: European Society of Neuroradiology (www.esnr.org)