Bihemispheric Cerebral FDG PET Correlates of Cognitive Dysfunction as Assessed by the CERAD in Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by a variety of cognitive deficits which can be reliably assessed by the neuropsychological test battery of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD), but the cerebral changes underlying the respective cognitive deficits are only partly understood. Measures of severity of dementia in AD as well as delayed episodic memory performance in mild cognitive impairment significantly correlated with bihemispheric cerebral glucose hypometabolism. We therefore hypothesized that the CERAD cognitive battery may represent cerebral dysfunction of both hemispheres in patients with AD.

In 32 patients with AD, cerebral glucose metabolism was investigated using positron-emission-tomography with ¹⁸ Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG PET) and associated with the test scores of the CERAD cognitive battery by statistical parametric mapping.

Episodic memory scores significantly correlated with temporoparietal glucose metabolism of both hemispheres while delayed episodic memory significantly was correlated with the right frontotemporal cortices. Verbal fluency and naming scores significantly correlated with glucose metabolism in left temporoparietal and right frontal cortices, whereas constructional praxis predominantly correlated significantly with the bilateral precuneus.

In conclusion, the results of our study demonstrate that not only memory function but also functions of language and constructional praxis in AD are associated with glucose metabolism as revealed by FDG PET in subsets of uni- and bilateral brain areas. The findings of our study for the first time demonstrate that in AD neuropsychological deficits as assessed by the CERAD refer to different cerebral sites of both hemispheres.