[Clinically diagnosed corticobasal degeneration (CBD)]

We reported a 67-year-old male, who suffered from apraxia and amnesia for 2 years and for muscle rigidity of right extremities for a year. Neurological examination revealed dysarthria, dysphagia, marked dystonia of right arm, hyperreflexia of all limbs and ataxic gait. He also had dementia and many other higher cortical dysfunction mostly due to left hemisphere damage. No impairment of eye movement was disclosed. Brain MRI as well as CT showed the significant brain atrophy in the left parieto-occipital region. A degenerative atrophy was suspected by 123I-IMP-SPECT and 18F-FDG-PET. By FDG-PET, the decrease of cerebral blood flow and glucose metabolism was detected not only affected unilateral cerebral cortex including primary motor area but ipsilateral basal ganglia and thalamus. Although, it is difficult to distinguish clinically CBD from atypical case of Alzheimer's disease, we speculated that in early stage of dementia, significant unilateral hypoperfusion and hypometabolism of basal ganglia and thalamus is characteristic of CBD.