Neuroimaging in dementia. Clinical-radiological correlation.

Dementia is a syndrome characterised by chronic, multi-domain, acquired cognitive impairment that causes significant functional limitations. MRI is the standard imaging study for these cases, since it enables detection of the atrophy patterns of the various neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal degeneration, Lewy body dementia), the vascular lesions associated with vascular dementia, and various potentially reversible diseases (for example, tumours, hydrocephaly) or diseases that require special management measures (for example, prion diseases). In certain cases other imaging methods can be used, such as CT, functional MRI, HMPAO SPECT or dopaminergic markers and FDG PET, amyloid markers or dopaminergic markers. The indications for these methods have not yet been clearly established, and therefore should be used in multidisciplinary dementia units.