One hundred and ten years ago, Chiari performed an autopsy of a patient studied by Arnold Pick. The man had suffered progressive dementia and their frontal and temporal lobes showed severe atrophy. From this landmark to nowadays knowledge about frontotemporal dementia (FTD) has grown not without effort and with progresses, recedes and controversies. Age of onset, changes in personality and emotional alterations are the differential factors resulting in a heavier familial, social and economical burden when compared with other types of dementia. A non sharp-edged epidemiological frame is the result of FTD heterogeneity and sub diagnosis. Different frontal and temporal circuits, affected in different sequences and with different hemispheric and lobar preponderance are the origin of the heterogenic early disease manifestations. The above mentioned issues and the progresses in morphological and functional neurorradiology, neurochemistry, genetics, neuropsychological tools and concepts will be considered with the aim of creating a context to discuss the possibility to install the concept of an early diagnosis of FTD.
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