Cerebral blood flow changes in Parkinson?s disease associated with dementia

Mirosława Derejko; Jarosław Sławek; Piotr Lass; Walenty M. Nyka

Vol 4, No 2 (2001)

Review paper

Submitted: 2012-01-23

Published online: 2001-07-23

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Cerebral blood flow changes in Parkinson?s disease associated with dementia

Mirosława Derejko, Jarosław Sławek, Piotr Lass, Walenty M. Nyka

Nucl. Med. Rev 2001;4(2):123-128.

Vol 4, No 2 (2001)

Reviews

Submitted: 2012-01-23

Published online: 2001-07-23

Abstract

Dementia is one of the main non-motor symptoms of Parkin- son's disease (PD) and it is diagnosed in about 30% of cases. Its aetiology remains unclear and contributing factors are con- troversial. Dementia may be more common in old patients with severe motor symptoms and mild cognitive impairment. Clini- co-pathological studies show the association between demen- tia in PD and the age-related group of dementias, such as AD and VaD. A valuable aid in the assessment of dementia in PD is cerebral blood flow (CBF) brain SPECT scanning. It shows three differ- ent patterns of rCBF reduction, including frontal lobe hypoper- fusion, iuAlzheimer-likel type of hypoperfusion and multiple, vas- cular defects. The heterogeneity of rCBF reduction may reflect the multifactorial pathophysiology of dementia in PD. It may result from concomitant AD pathology, cerebrovascular disease, destruction of nigro-striato-frontal projection or may be a dis- tinct disease of different aetiology.