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Vascular Dementia

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PET and SPECT in Neurology

Abstract

Vascular dementia (VaD) is a cognitive syndrome associated with cerebrovascular disease and clinically relevant ischemic or hemorrhagic lesions. It represents a group of disorders of heterogeneity, encompassing strategic infarct dementia, multi-infarct dementia, and subcortical vascular dementia. Brain lesions arising from vascular insult and subsequent clinical symptoms of patients with VaD are related to regional hypometabolism or ischemia/hypoperfusion. These can be diagnosed and measured using positron emission tomography (PET) and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) techniques. In this chapter, we describe characteristics of PET and SPECT that are associated with clinical phenotypes in strategic infarct dementia, multi-infarct dementia, and subcortical vascular dementia.

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Abbreviations

AD:

Alzheimer’s disease

ADRVCL:

Autosomal dominant retinal vasculopathy with cerebral leukodystrophy

CADASIL:

Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy

CARASIL:

Cerebral autosomal recessive arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy

CBF:

Cerebral blood flow

FDG:

Fluorodeoxyglucose

HMPAO:

Hexamethylpropyleneamine oxime

IMP:

123I-isopropylamphetamine

MID:

Multi-infarct dementia

MMSE:

Mini-mental state examination

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

NINDS-AIREN:

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and The Association Internationale pour la Recherche at L’Enseignement en Neurosciences

OEF:

Oxygen extraction fraction

PET:

Positron emission tomography

PIB:

Pittsburgh compound B

rCMRO2 :

Regional cerebral metabolic rate for oxygen

SID:

Strategic infarct dementia

SPECT:

Single-photon emission computed tomography

SVaD:

Subcortical vascular dementia

SVCI:

Subcortical vascular cognitive impairment

svMCI:

Subcortical vascular mild cognitive impairment

VaD:

Vascular dementia

WMH:

White matter hyperintensities

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Funding/Support

This study was supported by grants from Samsung Medical Center Clinical Research Development Program (CRL-108011 and CRS 110-14-1) and by the Converging Research Center Program through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2010K001054).

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Correspondence to Duk L. Na MD, PhD .

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Kim, H.J. et al. (2014). Vascular Dementia. In: Dierckx, R., Otte, A., de Vries, E., van Waarde, A., Leenders, K. (eds) PET and SPECT in Neurology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54307-4_18

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