Year: 2007
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The number of elderly people is increasing and, therefore, an increase in neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular disorders causing dementia is expected. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. Vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and frontotemporal dementia are the most frequent causes after Alzheimer’s disease, but a large proportion of patients have a combination of degenerative and vascular pathology in the brain. Characteristic magnetic resonance (MR) imaging findings can contribute to the identification of different diseases causing dementia. Structural neuroimaging in dementia is focused on detection of brain atrophy, especially in the medial temporal lobe, for which coronal high resolution T1-weighted images perpendicular to the long axis of the temporal lobe are extremely useful. For the detection of cerebrovascular pathology, the MR imaging protocol should also include axial T2-weighted images, axial fluid-attenuated inversion recovery or proton density-weighted images, and axial gradient-echo T2*-weighted images. In addition, single photon emission computed tomography and positron emission tomography may have added value in the diagnosis of dementia and may become more important in the future, due to the development of radioligands for in vivo detection of Alzheimer’s pathology. New functional MR techniques and serial volumetric imaging studies to identify subtle brain abnormalities may also provide surrogate markers for pathologic processes occurring in diseases causing dementia and, in conjunction with clinical evaluation, may enable to reach more rigorous and early diagnoses, approaching the accuracy of neuropathology. Pathological ageing of the brain: an overview 13
Author: A.J. de Bastos Leite
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2105440001