Structural Neuroimaging in Dementia for Outpatient Clinic Visit

Abstract

Dementia is a common illness to find in a psychiatric consultation and its incidence is rising as the aged population increases. Traditionally the imagines in dementia were used to rule out etiologies that had pharmacological o surgery treatments. However, in the last years neuroimaging has played a very important role in the field of dementia. Structural imaging (particularly MRI) has become an important tool in the diagnosis of degenerative dementias because of findings that help us to support the diagnosis of different etiologies. Different patterns of atrophy can be identified on visual inspection of MRI in various neurodegenerative conditions. However, it’s sometimes difficult to recognize or acknowledge these patterns during a regular outpatient clinic visit. In this review we describe the most important findings in structural neuroimaging in the most common causes of dementia and we analyze the most useful visual scales that can help us in the differential diagnosis of dementia during a regular outpatient clinic visit.