Daniel HS Silverman, MD, PhD, Ahmanson Biological Imaging Center, Division Nuclear Medicine, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA.
Introduction
Early-stage dementia is often unrecognized or misdiagnosed.1 This can be particularly problematic for dementias due to neurodegenerative disease, like Alzheimer's, where the most can be gained from effective therapies that intervene as early as possible in the course of progressive, irreversible damage to brain tissue. Conventional methods for evaluation are often inaccurate for making a diagnosis or prognosis in the early stages of dementia. However, over the past several years it has become increasingly evident that certain neuroimaging methods--making use of low levels of radioactive compounds to noninvasively elucidate brain function--can be used to sensitively identify such disease at the time of a patient's first presentation of symptoms.
Neuronuclear Imaging in Dementia Assessment
Over the last two decades, clinicians and researchers have gained substantial experience in using the three-dimensional imaging capabilities of positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) for the identification and differential diagnosis of dementia.
