Mukherji SK, consulting ed. Murray AD, guest ed. Imaging in Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias. Elsevier; February 2012. Neuroimaging Clinics of North America; vol. 22, no. 1, pgs. 1-122, $342.
Imaging in Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias is an important addition to the Neuroimaging Clinics of North America. Dr. Mukherji is to be congratulated for selecting this topic for the February issue and for selecting Dr. Murray as the guest editor of this volume. The list of authors (15 in all) shows the progress being made internationally in trying to understand the imaging consequences of dementia. The sole authors from North America are Dr. Tartaglia from the University of Toronto and Dr. Toga from UCLA; the others are from the UK, France, Japan, and the Netherlands.
This concise and well structured, 121-page volume is divided into 9 chapters, 6 of which deal with the most pressing dementia, Alzheimer’s disease (AD). These 6 AD chapters are Epidemiology; Pathology; Clinical and Research Criteria; Structural Neuroimaging in Aging and in AD; Molecular Neuroimaging in AD; and Imaging Datasets in AD. The remaining chapters deal with Dementia with Lewry Bodies; Frontotemporal (FT) Dementia; Brain Reserve and Decline.
With an emphasis on clinicians, and indirectly on neuroradiologists, to establish a definitive diagnosis of AD (or other dementias) and to determine the validity of testing (imaging in particular) to prognosticate the future of any given individual, this book takes on even more significance. Most of Neuroimaging Clinics of North America readers’ attention will be drawn to those areas of this volume where there is some imaging, as in the FT degeneration or in Lewy Body dementia, and particularly in the well illustrated and clear writing in the chapter on Structural Neuroimaging in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease. In this important chapter by Drs. Vernooji and Smits from the Netherlands, there are 2 distinct parts: the first deals with imaging in normal and abnormal aging, while the second part deals specifically with imaging in AD. Every day neuroradiologists are faced with MR imaging in the older age group and deciding what, in any specific case, to call normal aging vs. abnormal aging, and this often becomes an issue of norms set in one’s own mind. The first 10 pages of this chapter give some standards on which to hang one’s hat. Specifically discussed and, in some cases, demonstrated in the aging population are brain/hippocampal atrophy, significant/non-significant white matter lesions, microbleeds, perivascular spaces, and small (presumed) brain infarcts. The second part of this chapter focuses on AD; it is richly illustrated and contains important tabular information, including a summary of the structural MR findings in the differential diagnosis of AD. Here we can compare typical AD dementia with Lewy bodies, Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease, and Frontotemporal dementia. Recommendations for MR protocols in dementia evaluation are also included.
The reader should not ignore other chapters, particularly the first chapter, which one can personalized because, among other issues, the author (Dr. Walley) discusses dietary and chemical/lifestyle issues that impact on AD. Who would not be interested in this, either for themselves or for family members?
The pathology chapter serves to educate the neuroradiologist on molecular issues such as the Tau protein, beta-amyloid, and genetics of AD. This chapter, along with the one on clinical criteria for AD and molecular imaging, helps complete the material on AD. Differential considerations in separate chapters on dementia with Lewy bodies and Frontotemporal dementia allow appreciation of the clinical and imaging difficulties in establishing the proper diagnosis.
It is certain that an increasing demand for imaging in suspected dementia (not simply to rule out other causes of dementia) will occur. A deeper understanding of the pathology and imaging correlates will be necessary. This volume of the Neuroimaging Clinics of North America helps greatly in this regard.
