Skip to main content

REVIEW article

Front. Neurol.
Sec. Dementia and Neurodegenerative Diseases
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1428036

Memories and Mimics: How FDG-PET can be used to clarify and differentiate neurodegenerative cognitive disordersimplications for therapeutic approach

Provisionally accepted
Brendan Huang Brendan Huang 1*Sara Sawicki Sara Sawicki 2Carolyn Habiger Carolyn Habiger 2Paul J. Mattis Paul J. Mattis 3Marc L. Gordon Marc L. Gordon 4,5Ana M. Franceschi Ana M. Franceschi 6Luca Giliberto Luca Giliberto 1,5
  • 1 Department of Neurology, Northwell Health, Glen Cove, United States
  • 2 Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, United States
  • 3 Northwell Health, New York, United States
  • 4 Department of Psychiatry, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra-Northwell, Hempstead, New York, United States
  • 5 Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, New York, New York, United States
  • 6 Department of Radiology, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging can help clinicians pursue the differential diagnosis of various neurodegenerative diseases. In conjunction with computed tomography (CT) imaging, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and biomarker studies, it has become an invaluable diagnostic tool in routine clinical practice. We present a single-institution case series and systematic literature review, showing how FDG-PET imaging has helped physicians diagnose neurodegenerative diseases and their mimickers, and how patient care was amended.A single institution analysis and comprehensive literature search was completed following PRISMA guidelines. These medical subjects' headings (MeSH) terms were used: "FDG-PET" AND ("dementia" OR "Alzheimer's" OR "neurodegeneration" OR "frontotemporal dementia" OR "atypical parkinsonian syndrome" OR "primary progressive aphasia" OR "lewy body dementia"). The inclusion criteria included studies with uncertain diagnosis of neurocognitive disease that were resolved with FDG-PET, PET/MRI or PET/CT hybrid imaging.Literature search resulted in 3976 articles. After considering inclusion and exclusion criteria, 14 case reports and 1 case series were selected, representing 19 patients. The average age of patients was 70.8 years old (Range 54 -83). Five of 19 patients were females. Dementia with Lewy-bodies had the highest propensity for being misidentified as another neurodegenerative disease, followed by Alzheimer's disease and Frontotemporal dementia.Without accurate molecular imaging, neurodegenerative diseases may be missed or misdiagnosed. Our single institution case series and literature review demonstrate how FDG-PET brain imaging can be used to correct and clarify pre-existing clinical diagnoses of neurodegenerative disease.

    Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body dementia, FDG-PET, Frontotemporal Dementia, Systematic review

    Received: 05 May 2024; Accepted: 22 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Huang, Sawicki, Habiger, Mattis, Gordon, Franceschi and Giliberto. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Brendan Huang, Department of Neurology, Northwell Health, Glen Cove, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.