Positron Emission Tomography-Based Assessment of Cognitive Impairment and Dementias, Critical Role of Fluorodeoxyglucose in such Settings

PET imaging has been a powerful tool for evaluating patients with neurodegenerative diseases. The variety of components of the disease process that PET can be used to image, from cerebral blood flow and glucose metabolism to changes in neurotransmitter systems to Ab-amyloid and other disease related molecules, has allowed PET imaging to play a significant role in developing the current understanding these disease processes and their underlying pathophysiology within a research context. PET imaging has also served as a useful clinical tool showing a great potential for increasing the accuracy of evaluating, diagnosing, and assigning a prognosis of neurodegenerative diseases at various stages within the disease process and may additionally provide insight into therapeutic effectiveness on an individual level. Another future application of PET studies will be the ability to determine the patients who are most appropriate for medical or surgical interventions. Overall, PET imaging of patients affected by neurodegenerative diseases will continue to be a powerful tool in understanding and studying the disease course, underlying causes, and longterm implications both for research and clinical purposes.