Are brain SPECT data and neuropsychological disturbances correlated in patients with Alzheimer disease and Vascular Dementia? [Alzheimer ve Vasküler demans Hastalarinda beyin SPECT datasi ve nöropsikolojik bozukluklar i̇lişkili midir?]

Background: the clinical identification and the role of imaging in the differential diagnosis of dementia is challenging. the aim of this study is to investigate the characteristics and correlation of neurophsychological test battery and the semi-quantitative brain spect imaging in alzheimer's dementia(ad) and vascular dementia (vad). methods: a total of 56 ad and 16 vad patients,and 16 patients in the control group were evaluated by neurophsychological test battery and 99mtc-hmpao brain spect study. all of the patients underwent detailed neurological examination,cerebral magnetic resonance imaging,and laboratory evaluation before diagnosis. regional perfusion ratios were calculated in brain spect study and compared with neurophsychological test results. results: demographic characteristics (age,gender,education) were identical in ad,vad and control group. in brain spect study regional perfusion ratio of posterior cingulate was significantly lower in ad group than control subjects (p=0.030). mini mental state examination was identical in ad and vad patients,but there was statistically significant difference between study groups when compared with control subjects (p=0.001). there were significant correlations between neuropsychiatric test results and regional perfusion ratios. conclusions: the results of this study confirms that regional perfusion defects correlate with specific patterns of cognitive abnormalities in ad and vad. brain spect imaging accompanied by detailed neurophsychological battery helps us to understand the degree of cerebral functioning more accurately and would increase gain in diagnostic certanity in clinical practice.