LEARN NUCLEAR MEDICINE
Neurology · Case 06
Read the history, inspect the study, then reveal the teaching.
IMAGE PLACEHOLDER · Diagnostic study
Original study · Companion image placeholders
Clinical history
66-year-old woman presents to the clinic with her husband with recent complaints of behavior changes. Her husband says that over the last year she has become increasingly more forgetful and erratic, often displaying childlike behavior.
Read the images before opening the teaching panel below.
Frontotemporal dementia (Pick’s Disease)
Imaging Findings
Decreased metabolic activity is seen within the bilateral frontal lobes, right being greater than left.
Essential Facts
Frontotemporal dementia is rare and presents earlier in life than Alzheimer’s disease.
In this disease, personality and mood changes often occur before memory loss.
The most common pattern of frontotemporal dementia on FDG PET imaging is marked hypometabolism in the frontal and frontotemporal regions of the brain.
References
“Central Nervous System.” Essentials of Nuclear Medicine Imaging, by Fred A. Mettler and Milton J. Guiberteau, Elsevier Saunders, 2012, pp. 71–97.