Neuroimaging findings in community-based studies of the elderly

Kiyotaka Nemoto, Takashi Asada

Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba

Accumulating evidences show that dementia patients show cerebral atrophy or hypometabolism/perfusion even in their early stage of dementia. Community-based studies are important which can follow the neuroimaging findings of the preclinical stages of dementia. Previous studies show that1)white matter hyperintensities are related to memory,2)hippocampal volume can predict the cognitive decline, and3)converters to dementia sshow hypometabolism/perfusion like dementia at preclinical stage. The challenge is to establish the way how we utilize the neuroimaging modalities to evaluate the effect of dementia prevention or early intervention.

Address correspondence to Dr. Kiyotaka Nemoto, Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba (1-1-1 Ten-nodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan)