Diagnosing Alzheimer's Disease More Accurately

Alzheimer's disease can be particularly hard to diagnose due to the fact that it is so similar to other degenerative diseases such as frontotemporal dementia (FTD), which has much of the same clinical diagnostic criteria as Alzheimer's disease. Even the most experienced experts on the diseases can mis- diagnose one for the other.

New research from the University of Utah shows that a procedure known as a PET scan (positron emission tomography) has a very high degree of accuracy when it comes to diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. A PET scan measures the amount of sugar that is taken in by the brain.

A total of 6 physicians from 3 different Alzheimer's disease centers were able to give a correct diagnoses of either frontotemporal dementia (FTD) or Alzheimer's in close to 90% of the patients who were in the study by using a scan called FDG-PET. This equates out to be as much as 14% more correct diagnoses over the established methods.

FDG, or fluorodeoxyglucose, is a short-lived radioactive form of sugar. It is injected into the patient when they are having a PET scan. What it does is show the different levels of activity in the different regions of the brain. Alzheimer's and FTD will show different activity levels in different regions. With Alzheimer's, there is a lower level of activity mostly in the rear of the brain, with FTD, the lower activity usually occurs in the front of the brain.

FTD usually strikes between the ages of 45 and 64 and is one of the most common forms of early onset dementia. The symptoms include changes in behavior and difficulty with language. FTD, and Alzheimer's alike can take many years to develop and both are so far incurable.