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Does Midbrain Atrophy Distinguish Progressive Supranuclear Palsy from Frontotemporal Dementia?
Mauro César Quintão E Silva Cunningham1,2, Sarah Teixeira Camargos1,3,4, Vinícius Ribeiro Jeunon2
1Ambulatório de Distúrbios de Movimento, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Background:
The diagnostic value of midbrain atrophy for distinguishing behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is unclear.
Objective:
To investigate whether measures of midbrain atrophy differentiate PSP from bvFTD.
Methods:
We included four groups: healthy controls (n = 19), PSP-Richardson syndrome (n = 20), bvFTD (n = 19) and Parkinson's disease (PD; n = 12). The following quantitative and qualitative measures were calculated: Hummingbird sign rating scale [HBS-RS], global midbrain atrophy [GMA], midbrain area, midbrain/pons ratio, the Magnetic Resonance Parkinsonism Index (MRPI), the MRPI 2.0 and brainstem volume.
Results:
Compared to controls, PSP and bvFTD had lower values of midbrain area, HBS-RS and GMA, and higher MRPI and MRPI 2.0. HBS-RS, GMA, midbrain/pons ratio, midbrain area, MRPI, MRPI 2.0 and brainstem volume distinguished PSP from bvFTD with 73%, 67%, 75%, 83%, 71%, 69% and 82% accuracies, respectively.
Conclusions:
Both quantitative and qualitative measures of midbrain atrophy provided modest accuracy in distinguishing PSP from bvFTD.
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