Is FDG-PET a useful tool in clinical practice for diagnosing corticobasal ganglionic degeneration?
✍ Scribed by Ilse M.F. Coulier; Joeke J. de Vries; Klaus L. Leenders
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2003
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 56 KB
- Volume
- 18
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0885-3185
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
Seven consecutive patients were suspected to suffer from corticobasal ganglionic degeneration (CBGD) and were studied with ^[18]^F‐fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET imaging of the brain. At the time of their FDG‐PET scan, 4 of 7 patients fulfilled the clinical criteria of CBGD as proposed by Lang and associates [In Calne DB, 1994; Neurodegenerative disease. Philadelphia: Saunders]. For 2 of these 4 patients, however, an alternative clinical diagnosis was also considered. Three of the seven patients underwent an FDG‐PET scan when their clinical features were not yet developed sufficiently to confirm a clinical diagnosis of CBGD. Simple visual analysis of the FDG‐PET scans was carried out. All 7 patients showed an asymmetrical pattern of glucose metabolism that was demonstrated in previous studies to be characteristic in patients who had a clinical diagnosis of CBGD. The PET results helped to confirm the clinical suspicion of CBGD in 2 patients and to rule out other diagnoses in 2 other patients. For 3 patients with no sufficient symptoms to diagnose CBGD, the pattern of glucose metabolism was characteristically asymmetrical. A probable diagnosis of CBGD was made in these patients. Our results suggest that routine visual inspection of a cerebral FDG‐PET scan is a useful tool to confirm suspicion of the clinical diagnosis of probable CBGD, to differentiate from other hypokinetic‐rigid syndromes, and to support a diagnosis CBGD in patients who do not (yet) sufficiently fulfill the clinical criteria. © 2003 Movement Disorder Society