Yu Zhang1,2, Norbert Schuff1,2, Christopher Ching1,2, Duygu Tosun1,2, Marzieh Nezamzadeh1,2, Wang Zhan1,2, Howard J. Rosen3, Joel H. Kramer3, Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini3, Bruce L. Miller3, Michael W. Weiner1,2
1CIND, VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA; 2Radiology, UC San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; 3Neurology, UC San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
We report initial attempts of utilizing structural, perfusion and diffusion MRI together toward a comprehensive analysis of brain alterations in Alzheimers disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). We found that gray matter damage, reflected by cortical atrophy and hypoperfusion, dominated the alterations in AD, whereas damage to gray matter and white matter, as measured by diffusion MRI, characterized FTD. These tissue specific patterns may shine a light on the differential pathologies underlying AD and FTD. They may also aid a differential diagnosis between the diseases and emphasize the benefit of multimodality MRI.