PET/CT of Dementia.

OBJECTIVE

In this article, we review the literature on PET/CT in the management of dementia, present evidence for best clinical practices, and discuss recent advances in the field.

CONCLUSION

Standard-of-care imaging for dementia includes CT and MRI, primarily for excluding vascular lesions or masses, detecting atrophy, and monitoring disease severity. PET/CT is a powerful functional modality that can differentiate dementia types and influence management. Fluorine-18-FDG PET/CT reveals the spatial pattern of glucose metabolism in the brain. More recently, radiotracers for PET have been developed that bind to amyloid protein, tau protein, and neuroinflammatory markers.