Diagnostic Value of Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Positron Emission Tomography in Early Stages of Frontotemporal Dementia.

BACKGROUND

Due to suboptimal sensitivity and specificity of structural and molecular neuroimaging tools, the diagnosis of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) remains challenging.

OBJECTIVE

Investigation of the sensitivity of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) to detect cerebral alterations in early stages of bvFTD despite inconspicuous conventional MRI.

METHODS

Thirty patients with early stages of bvFTD underwent a detailed neuropsychological examination, cerebral 3T MRI with DTI analysis, and FDG-PET. After 12 months of follow-up, all patients finally fulfilled the diagnosis of bvFTD. Individual FDG-PET data analyses showed that 20 patients exhibited a "typical" pattern for bvFTD with bifrontal and/or temporal hypometabolism (bvFTD/PET+), and that 10 patients showed a "non-typical"/normal pattern (bvFTD/PET-). DTI data were compared with 42 healthy controls in an individual and voxel-based group analysis. To examine the clinical relevance of the findings, associations between pathologically altered voxels of DTI or FDG-PET results and behavioral symptoms were estimated by linear regression analyses.

RESULTS

DTI voxel-based group analyses revealed microstructural degeneration in bifrontal and bitemporal areas in bvFTD/PET+ and bvFTD/PET- groups. However, when comparing the sensitivity of individual DTI data analysis with FDG-PET, DTI appeared to be less sensitive. Neuropsychological symptoms were considerably related to neurodegeneration within frontotemporal areas identified by DTI and FDG-PET.

CONCLUSION

DTI seems to be an interesting tool for detection of functionally relevant neurodegenerative alterations in early stages of bvFTD, even in bvFTD/PET- patients. However, at a single subject level, it seems to be less sensitive than FDG-PET. Thus, improvement of individual DTI analysis is necessary.