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Key emerging issues in frontotemporal dementia.


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Authors

Hopkins, Sarah AA 

Abstract

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) encompasses the syndromes of behavioural variant FTD (bvFTD) and primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and refers to those neurodegenerative diseases characterised by predominant pathological involvement of the frontal and temporal lobes. Recent years have witnessed major advances in the clinical characterisation of FTD, reflected in the publication of updated diagnostic criteria for bvFTD and PPA, and the discovery of new pathogenic mutations has added to the understanding of genotype-phenotype interactions and of disease mechanisms. Emerging results from longitudinal studies of familial FTD show that imaging and cognitive changes occur years before symptom onset and such studies may yield biomarkers of early disease that in turn will facilitate earlier diagnosis. The hope and (guarded) expectation is that these advances may together herald the beginning of the end of the chapter in which FTD is considered an inexorably progressive and untreatable condition.

Description

Keywords

Biomarkers, Cognition, Diagnostic criteria, Frontotemporal dementia, Genetics, Female, Frontotemporal Dementia, Humans, Male, Neurology

Journal Title

J Neurol

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0340-5354
1432-1459

Volume Title

263

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
Dr Chan is funded by the Cambridge NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and receives grant income from the UK Medical Research Council, Technology Strategy Board and the Cambridge Isaac Newton Trust.