Abstract

MERY C, Victoria  and  GONZALEZ-HERNANDEZ, Jorge. Diagnostic utility of ancillary tests in dementia workups, systematic review: Part 1: Neuroimaging. Rev. chil. neuro-psiquiatr. [online]. 2008, vol.46, n.1, pp.55-62. ISSN 0717-9227.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0717-92272008000100007.

Background: Dementia is one ofthe mainproblems inpublic health, affecting5to 10% ofthe eider population. The cost-effectiveness analysis ofthe ancillary tests is controversial. The object ofthis research is to make a review ofthe recent sudies related to neuroimaging and dementia. Method and Results: English and Spanish studies published in the last ten years were searched in Medline, using evidence-based techniques. 13 systematic reviews werefound and analysed. Conclusión: While reversible cases of dementia are rare once detected, most of the experts recommend the routine use of computarised tomography scanning. Ifthe access to this test were restricted, there are some rules to select patients. Magnetic resonance imaging is betterfor the diagnosis of some subtypes of dementia like Creutzfeldt-Jakob, Huntington or CADASIL. Volumetry spectrometry PET and SPECT would be reserved to investigation protocoles or special cases of diagnostic doubt

Keywords : Dementia; diagnosis; neuroimaging; SPECT; tomography; resonance; magnetic.

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