[Disorders of glucose metabolism in Pick's disease]

A clinically diagnosed case of advanced Pick's disease served to illustrate that positron emission tomography is a sensitive method for diagnosing complex functional disturbances. Pick's disease can be differentiated against presenile dementia represented by Alzheimer's disease in that the pattern of reduced metabolism characteristic of Alzheimer's disease is different from that of Pick's disease where in accordance with the clinical syndrome the glucose metabolism in the frontal and temporobasal regions in reduced, involving also the structures of the hippocampus and an equally significant reduction of glucose metabolism in the caudate nucleus. Especially during the initial phase of the disease when structural changes are not yet evident or the clinical manifestation of the syndrome does not correlate with the degree of lobar atrophy seen in the computer tomogram or via magnetic resonance tomography, positron emission tomography can make differential diagnosis much easier.