According to a new study in the Journal of Neurology, brainstem atrophy may be more likely in frontotemporal dementia (FD) patients with extrapyramidal than those with no such symptoms.
The study’s research team from Kuopio University examined the records of 139 patients with frontotemporal dementia, centering on extrapyramidal symptoms.
Atrophy of the basal ganglia in the midbrain and the brainstem was uncovered among patients with extrapyramidal symptoms, based on the findings.
“Here, we report an association between extrapyramidal symptoms and brainstem atrophy in patients suffering from FTD spectrum disorders in general, and also specifically in the bvFTD patients. To the best of our knowledge, these are novel findings,” the authors explained in their findings.
“In the whole cohort, EP + patients showed lower volumes of gray matter compared to EP- patients in the putamen, bilateral globus pallidum, ventral diencephalon and brain stem.”
“We discovered that extrapyramidal symptoms are linked to brainstem atrophy in bvFTD patients and the whole cohort,” the authors determined. “Our findings could be utilized for earlier differentiation of such FTD spectrum patients from, e.g., Parkinson’s disease patients, enabling early and more accurate differential diagnosis of these rare neurodegenerative diseases.”
