The diagnostic study on MRI and SPECT for the dementia / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To assess the diagnostic value of the single-photon-emission computed tomography (SPECT) and the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD), and to explore the correlation between cerebral atrophy and cerebral regional blood flow and the degree of cognitive impairment in AD patients. Methods The temporal and frontal lobes and hippocampus were quantitatively detected by MRI and the cerebral regional blood flow in these regions was analysed semi-quantitatively by SPECT for 36 patients with AD, 32 with VD and 30 sex-matched non-demented elderly controls (NC). Results The hippocampal atrophy of AD and VD groups detected on MRI was significantly different from that of the NC group. Left hippocampal height was (9.27?3.43)mm in AD, (11.62?5.72)mm in VD and (12.13?2.97)mm in NC(P0.05, compared to that of NC), showing that hippocampal atrophy could not be detected by MRI. However, RAR of the left hippocampus by SPECT detection was 0.61?0.07 (P