HOW CAN NEUROIMAGING HELP UNDERSTAND, DIAGNOSE, AND DEVELOP

TREATMENTS FOR ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE?

Part D1 – AD brain scans – perfusion SPECT NUCLEAR MEDICINE GRAND ROUNDS

Stanford University

J. Wesson Ashford, M.D., Ph.D.

Clinical Professor (affiliated), Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral SciencesSenior Research Scientist, Stanford / VA Aging Clinical Research

Stanford University and VA Palo Alto Health Care System

January 5, 2010

Slides at: www.medafile.com (Dr. Ashford’s lectures)

Relation of SPECT severity to duration of dementia (years)Shih, Ashford et al., 2000

SPECT severity SPECT grade Dementia Duration Normal 0 start= 0 years

Near-Normal 1 1

Mild 2 2

Mild-moderate 3 3

Moderate 4 4

Moderate-severe 5 5

Severe 6 6

Severe-profound 7 7

Profound 8 8

SPECT scans – normalization to cerebellum on Left to Right, to Talraich space

Ashford et al, 2000

SPECT scan locations of cortex, local elements shown with Brodman areas, colored according to correlation with estimation of dementia severity (derived from the Mini-Mental State Exam)

"TIME-INDEX" versus TEMPORAL-PARIETAL region

CBFR

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

0 2 4 6 8

"time-index"

CB

FR