Etiology of Dementia in Thai Patients

Introduction Molecular imaging has been developed and validated in Thai patients, comprising a portion of patients in the dementia registry. This should provide a more accurate diagnosis of the etiology of dementia, which was the focus of this study. Methods This was a multicenter dementia study. The baseline characteristics, main presenting symptoms, and results of investigations and cognitive tests of the patients were electronically collected in the registry. Functional imaging and/or molecular imaging were performed in patients with an equivocal diagnosis of the causes of dementia, especially in atypical dementia or young onset dementia (YOD). Results There were 454 patients in the study. The mean age of the patients was 78 years, with 60% female. Functional imaging and/or molecular imaging were performed in 57 patients (57/454 patients, 13%). The most common cause of dementia was Alzheimer's disease (AD; 50%), followed by vascular dementia (VAD; 24%), dementia with Lewy bodies (6%), Parkinson's disease dementia (6%), frontotemporal dementia (FTD; 2.6%), progressive supranuclear palsy (2%), multiple system atrophy (0.8%), and corticobasal syndrome (0.4%). YOD accounted for 17% (77/454 patients), with a mean age of 58 years. The causes of YOD were early onset amnestic AD (44%), VAD (16%), behavioral variant FTD (8%), posterior cortical atrophy (6.5%), and logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (5.2%). Conclusion AD was the most common cause of dementia in Thai patients and the distribution of other types of dementia and main presenting symptoms were similar to previous reports in Western patients; however, the proportion of YOD was higher.