Clinical features of right temporal lobe variant of semantic dementia / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To identify the clinical profile and neuro-imaging findings of the right temporal lobe variant of semantic dementia (RTLV),and to understand the relationship between anatomic and function by comparison to the left temporal lobe atrophy.Methods Of 70 patients with diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia in our memory clinic,three patients with right temporal lobe atrophy were identified based on the MRI scans.We obtained the profile of cognitive function,behavior and personality changes in these 3 patients and compared them with those in 5 semantic dementia (SD) patients with predominant leftsided temporal lobe atrophy.We also underwent 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG-PET) with statistical parametric mapping analysis in these 3 patients.Results In RTLV patients,the most prominent cognitive deficits were impairment of prosopagnosia,and getting lost.Variety behavioral symptoms including apathy,social disinhibition,stereotypy,compulsive behaviors were more prevalent in early course for patients with RTLV,which were different from SD patients with semantic loss began with anomia or single-word comprehension.18F-FDG-PET scan showed decreased metabolism mainly in right temporal lobe and in other brain regions with varying degrees.Conclusions The RTLV is clinical heterogeneous.Prosopagnosia,behavioral changes and getting lost are the main features in the early course.It therefore,might be proposed a separate clinical entity.