Dopamine Receptor Imaging in Dementia Using Hybrid PET/MRI

Although life expectancy is increasingly associated with the treatment of heart disease and cancer, there has been virtually no improvement in life expectancy for patients with dementia. Dementia has a devastating impact to the patient, family members and society because patients become dependent on family caregivers, who are then less productive in other aspects of our society. There is currently extensive research to investigate possible treatments but a major problem is that there are many different forms of dementia which require different treatments. This search for treatments depends on being able to distinguish among the different forms of dementia based on symptoms alone, which is not always possible. Recent advances suggest that brain imaging could be used to make the correct diagnosis. We propose to develop brain imaging methods to allow the separation of two often confused forms of dementia: Dementia with Lewy Bodies from Alzheimers disease.

Faculty Supervisor:

Michael Kovacs

Student:

Udunna Anazodo

Partner:

St. Joseph's Health Care Foundation

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

Western University