Cinguloparietal Atrophy Distinguishes Alzheimer Disease From Semantic Dementia

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Abstract
NEW TREATMENTS for Alzheimer disease (AD) have been designed to target specific components of the AD neurodegenerative mechanism and are thus unlikely to be useful in other forms of dementia. For this reason, it will be important to distinguish other common causes of dementia, including vascular disease, Lewy body disease, and Pick complex disorders, from AD at early stages of the disease, when strategies to decrease brain β-amyloid levels will have the largest potential benefit. Neuroimaging is a useful tool in the diagnosis of dementia.118Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography of AD shows early parietal and cingulate hypometabolism, which is predictive of progression to dementia2 and is specific to AD.3