Cognitive dysfunction in patients with very mild Alzheimer's disease and amnestic mild cognitive impairment showing hemispheric asymmetries of hypometabolism on 18F-FDG PET.
Murayama, Norio 1,2; Ota, Kazumi 1; Kasanuki, Koji 1; Kondo, Daizo 1; Fujishiro, Hiroshige 1; Fukase, Yuko 2; Tagaya, Hirokuni 2; Sato, Kiyoshi 1; Iseki, Eizo 1
[Article] International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 31(1):41-48, January 2016.

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Objective: We investigated cognitive dysfunction in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) who present hemispheric asymmetries of cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (CMRglc) decrease on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography.

Methods: Based on the hemispheric asymmetries of CMRglc decrease in the posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus, and parietotemporal cortex, the patients were divided into three groups (a left-dominant hypometabolism group, a right-dominant hypometabolism group, and a non-dominant hypometabolism group). CMRglc decrease in the whole brain was controlled among the three groups. All the patients underwent mini-mental state examination (MMSE), Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R), and Wechsler Adult Intelligent Scale-Third (WAIS-III).

Results: There were no significant differences in MMSE and WAIS-III scores among the three groups. In WMS-R, the results indicated that the left-dominant group demonstrated significantly lower scores in verbal memory than the other two groups. Furthermore, the left-dominant group had a greater tendency to be diagnosed with AD rather than aMCI.

Conclusions: Patients with AD and aMCI showing left-dominant hypometabolism tend to show severer impairment in verbal memory function and to be diagnosed with AD dementia. Copyright (C) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

(C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd