| Semin Nucl Med 1992 Oct;22(4):233-246 |
The use of positron emission tomography in the clinical assessment of
dementia.
Mazziotta JC, Frackowiak RS, Phelps ME.
A number of reasons can be cited for performing a test that identifies patients early in
their course who have fatal and currently untreatable neurological disorders. At this
stage of illness there is clinical ambiguity. The patient, family, and physician are
typically faced with a battery of negative test results and an ambiguous clinical
impression that can lead to periodic repetition of tests that involve cost, inconvenience,
potential morbidity to the patient, and lack of definitive diagnosis. An accurate test
would lead to the avoidance of these low-yield, repetitive, and costly evaluations. In
addition, such studies can identify homogeneous groups of individuals with degenerative
disorders leading to dementia who could be enrolled in experimental therapeutic programs.
In these programs therapies could be monitored in an objective and noninvasive fashion
using positron emission tomography (PET). The magnitude of the health problems resulting
from the dementing illnesses is great in terms of medical practice, economics, and family
hardship. The number of individuals with these disorders is predicted to increase
dramatically in the future. The ability to provide an accurate diagnosis and more clear
prognosis early in the disease course should diminish ambiguity for patients, families,
and physicians. Ample evidence is cited in this article to show that PET has the ability
to provide such information objectively and noninvasively.
