Abstract
Dementia occurs mainly in the elderly and is associated with cognitive decline and impairment of activities of daily living. The most common forms of dementia are Alzheimer’s disease (AD), vascular dementia (VD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). To date, there are no causal options for therapy, but drug and non-drug treatments can positively modulate the course of the disease. Valid biomarkers are needed for the earliest possible and reliable diagnosis, but so far, such biomarkers have only been established for AD and require invasive and expensive procedures. In this context, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) provides a non-invasive and widely available technique for investigating the biochemical milieu of brain tissue in vivo. Numerous studies have been conducted for AD, but for VD, DLB, and FTD the number of studies is limited. Nevertheless, MRS can detect measurable metabolic alterations in common dementias. However, most of the studies conducted are too heterogeneous to assess the potential use of MRS technology in clinical applications. In the future, technological advances may increase the value of MRS in dementia diagnosis and treatment. This review summarizes the results of MRS studies conducted in common dementias and discusses the reasons for the lack of transfer into clinical routine.
Highlights
Dementia occurs mainly in the elderly and is associated with cognitive decline and impairment of activities of daily living
In the context of dementia, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is seen as an intermediate predementia state of cognitive decline, but there are stable and even reversible forms of MCI, which are not based on dementia neuropathology [3, 4]
The present review summarizes the findings of the meta-analysis and only lists MRS studies on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) published since 2015
Summary
Dementia occurs mainly in the elderly and is associated with cognitive decline and impairment of activities of daily living. This leads to an increased need for care during the course of the disease. The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease (AD), followed by vascular dementia (VD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) [for review see Cunningham et al [2]]. These most common types of dementia differ in etiology, clinical symptoms, diagnostic findings, and treatment approaches, in many cases it is difficult to make a reliable diagnosis. There is still a lack of biomarkers which are available and allow early diagnosis and classification of dementia
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