Cited by 34Dementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchAlzheimer's disease research and treatmentsAmyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Research

The Use of Biomarkers and Genetic Screening to Diagnose Frontotemporal Dementia: Evidence and Clinical Implications

Open access
Gossye, Helena, Van Broeckhoven, Christine, Engelborghs, Sebastiaan·2019·Frontiers in Neuroscience

Abstract

Within the wide range of neurodegenerative brain diseases, the differential diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) frequently poses a challenge. Often, signs and symptoms are not characteristic of the disease and may instead reflect atypical presentations. Consequently, the use of disease biomarkers is of importance to correctly identify the patients.. Here, we describe how neuropsychological characteristics, neuroimaging and neurochemical biomarkers and screening for causal gene mutations can be used to differentiate FTD from other neurodegenerative diseases as well as to distinguish between FTD subtypes. Summarizing current evidence, we propose a stepwise approach in the diagnostic evaluation. Clinical consensus criteria that take into account a full neuropsychological examination have relatively good accuracy (sensitivity [se] 75-95%, specificity [sp] 82-95%) to diagnose FTD, although misdiagnosis (mostly AD) is common. Structural brain MRI (se 70-94%, sp 89-99%) and FDG PET (se 47-90%, sp 68-98%) or SPECT (se 36-100%, sp 41-100%) brain scans greatly increase diagnostic accuracy, showing greater involvement of frontal and anterior temporal lobes, with sparing of hippocampi and medial temporal lobes. If these results are inconclusive, we suggest detecting amyloid and tau cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers that can indicate the presence of AD with good accuracy (se 74-100%, sp 82-97%). The use of P-tau181 and the Aβ1–42/ Aβ1–40 ratio significantly increases the accuracy of correctly identifying FTD vs AD. Alternatively, an amyloid brain PET scan can be performed to differentiate FTD from AD. When autosomal dominant inheritance is suspected, or in early onset dementia, mutation screening of causal genes is indicated and may also be offered to at-risk family members. We have summarized genotype-phenotype correlations for several genes that are known to cause familial frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), which is the neuropathological substrate of FTD. The genes most commonly associated with this disease (C9orf72, MAPT, GRN, TBK1) are discussed, as well as some less frequent ones (CHMP2B, VCP). Several other techniques, such as diffusion tensor imaging, tau PET imaging and measuring serum neurofilament levels, show promise for future implementation as diagnostic biomarkers.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3389/fnins.2019.00757

Cites

168 of 168 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 169 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Gossye, H., Van Broeckhoven, C., & Engelborghs, S.
Affiliations
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE)
Corresponding author
Engelborghs, Sebastiaan
Venue
Frontiers in Neuroscience
Published
2019-08-06
Volume
13
Pages
757-757
ISSN
1662-453X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2956196072
Cited by
34
References
169
Citations by year
2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1
FWCI
4.37
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Frontiers in Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • VUBIR (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
  • Universiteit Antwerpen
  • Vlaamse regering
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Research
Keywords
frontotemporal dementia, differential diagnosis, biomarkers, genetic screening, Alzheimer's disease, cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers, amyloid PET, FDG-PET, SPECT, neuroimaging, p-tau181, C9orf72, MAPT, gene regulatory networks, TBK1, CHMP2B, VCP, genotype-phenotype correlation, familial frontotemporal lobar degeneration, neurofilaments, tau PET, diffusion tensor imaging, atypical presentation

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review