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[Frontotemporal dementia: Review of 63 cases]
Archibaldo Donoso S1, Cristián Figueroa V, Rodrigo Gómez R
1Departamento de Neurología y Neurocirugía, Hospital Clínico de la Universidad de Chile, Santiago de Chile. adonoso@redclinicauchile.cl
Revista Medica De Chile
|October 6, 2009
Summary
Diagnosing frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is challenging, requiring careful evaluation of behavior and language. Anatomical diagnosis is definitive, though functional imaging can aid in some cases.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Neurology
- Clinical Psychology
Context:
- Frontotemporal dementias (FTD) are a group of neurodegenerative disorders.
- FTD affects behavior, emotion, and language, with relative preservation of memory.
- Key FTD subtypes include frontal/behavioral, progressive non-fluent aphasia, and semantic dementia.
Purpose:
- To describe the clinical experience with patients diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
- This retrospective study reviews cases evaluated between 1981 and 2008.
Summary:
- A review of 3,700 neuropsychological assessments identified 63 patients meeting FTD criteria.
- The most common FTD subtype was the frontal variant (47 cases), followed by non-fluent progressive aphasia (4 cases) and fluent progressive aphasias (6 cases).
- The average age of FTD onset was 60 years, with no familial cases identified.
Impact:
- Clinical diagnosis of FTD presents difficulties, necessitating thorough assessment of behavioral and linguistic changes.
- While structural imaging is definitive, functional imaging may provide supplementary diagnostic information.
- This study highlights the clinical presentation and subtypes of FTD in a retrospective cohort.
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