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REGIONAL CEREBRAL BLOOD FLOW SINGLE
PHOTON EMISSION COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IN THE DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS
OF DEMENTIAS
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ABSTRACT
Dementia is an acquired impairment
of at least three out of six spheres of intellectual activity: language,
memory, visuospatial skills, emotion, personality and cognition.
In developed countries it’s going to be one of chief medical problem
of 21st century. Its aetiology is complex: neurodegenerative, vascular
or secondary to underlying pathological processes. The clue problem
in modern diagnostics of dementia is over- diagnosing of Alzheimer’s
disease with tremendous following medical, economical and social
consequences. A very important and underestimated role in differentiation
of dementias can play the CBF brain SPECT scanning.
In years 1996 - 1998 we performed 246 Tc-HMPAO/ECD
brain scans in patients with cognitive impairment. Among 89 patients
with the initial diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in 70 the initial
diagnosis has been disqualified by means of SPECT, which exclusion
in 61 pts. has been confirmed by the clinical course and psychometric
tests. In this group 55 patients has been finally qualified as multiinfarct
dementia (MID) and 6 as fronto-temporal lobar degeneration (FTLD).
We can conclude that brain SPECT is useful and rapid screening tool
for cognition impairment. It saves time, money and enables early
rehabilitation and family counselling.
Keywords: dementia, diagnostics, SPECT
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Correspondence to:
Piotr Lass
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Medical University, 80–211 Gdańsk, Debinki St. 7 Poland
phone : (+48 58 3492204); fax: (+48 58) 301 61 15
e_mail: plass@amedec.amg.gda.pl
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