Jagust W J, Eberling J L
University of California, Davis.
Geriatrics. 1991 Feb;46(2):28-35.
The differential diagnosis of the dementia syndrome may pose a difficult clinical problem, since the most common dementia, Alzheimer's disease (AD), is marked by normal laboratory tests. Neuroimaging has played an important role in evaluating the demented patient, and its uses are growing. Computed tomography (CT) is useful for excluding reversible and treatable causes of dementia, such as subdural hematoma and tumor. More recently, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has improved our ability to diagnose vascular disease and may show the presence of cerebral infarcts and white matter disease not visible on CT. Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET), techniques that visualize such cerebral functions as glucose metabolism and blood flow, may provide positive evidence supportive of the diagnosis of AD.
痴呆综合征的鉴别诊断可能会带来一个棘手的临床问题，因为最常见的痴呆症——阿尔茨海默病（AD），其实验室检查结果通常是正常的。神经影像学在评估痴呆患者方面发挥了重要作用，并且其应用正在不断增加。计算机断层扫描（CT）有助于排除痴呆的可逆性和可治疗病因，如硬膜下血肿和肿瘤。最近，磁共振成像（MRI）提高了我们诊断血管疾病的能力，并且可能显示出CT上看不到的脑梗死和白质病变。单光子发射计算机断层扫描（SPECT）和正电子发射断层扫描（PET），这些能够将诸如葡萄糖代谢和血流等脑功能可视化的技术，可能会提供支持AD诊断的阳性证据。
