The use of PET and MRI in Neurodegenerative Disease: The Irish experience Abstract: Background: Differentiation between atypical Parkinsonian syndromes and dementia subtypes is important but often difficult. We investigated the use of FDG- PET in differentiating between these diseases and the value of FDG- PET over MRI. Methods: 36 patients with a diagnosis of atypical Parkinsonism (CBD, PSP, MSA and PPA) or dementia (AD, FTD, Vascular and DLBD) were included for FDG-PET analysis. 31 of those also had MRI and were included for MRI analysis. Results: 22 of 36 patients had a FDG-PET scan supportive of a specific type of neurodegeneration. 2 of 31 patients had an MRI scan supportive of the underlying diagnosis. FDG- PET was a superior radiological tool in diagnosing specific neurodegeneration (p< 0.00004). Conclusion: FDG- PET is useful in differentiating between different types of neurodegeneration. In our patient cohort it was significantly more useful than MRI. A large prospective study is warranted to confirm our results. Project type: Data acquisition & analysis Imaging keywords: Positron emission tomography (PET) Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) Application / disease keywords: Alzheimer's disease (AD) Corticobasal degeneration (CBD) Dementia Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) Multiple system atrophy (MSA) Parkinsonism Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) Vascular dementia Supervisor(s): Dr Nadine Dougall Programme: Neuroimaging for Research MSc Year: 10-11 This article was published on 2024-08-22
