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Parkinsonism and Frontotemporal Dementia: The Clinical Overlap

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Abstract

Frontotemporal dementia is commonly associated with parkinsonism in several sporadic (i.e., progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal degeneration) and familial neurodegenerative disorders (i.e., frontotemporal dementia associated with parkinsonism and MAPT or progranulin mutations in chromosome 17). The clinical diagnosis of these disorders may be challenging in view of overlapping clinical features, particularly in speech, language, and behavior. The motor and cognitive phenotypes can be viewed within a spectrum of clinical, pathologic, and genetic disorders with no discrete clinicopathologic correlations but rather lying within a dementia–parkinsonism continuum. Neuroimaging and cerebrospinal fluid analysis can be helpful, but the poor specificity of clinical and imaging features has enormously challenged the development of biological markers that could differentiate these disorders premortem. This gap is critical to bridge in order to allow testing of novel biological therapies that may slow the progression of these proteinopathies.

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Conflicts of Interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Disclosures

Dr. Espay is supported by a K23 Mentored Career Development Award (1K23MH092735). Dr. Litvan is partially funded by R01 PAS-03-092 NIA “Genetic and environmental risk factors for PSP.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Movement Disorders Center, UC Neuroscience Institute, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Alberto J. Espay

  2. Department of Neurology, Division of Movement Disorders Center, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA

    Irene Litvan

  3. Division of Movement Disorders, Department of Neurology, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Frazier Rehab Neuroscience Institute, 220 Abraham Flexner Way, Suite 1503, Louisville, KY, 40202, USA

    Irene Litvan

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  1. Alberto J. Espay
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  2. Irene Litvan
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Correspondence to Irene Litvan.

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Espay, A.J., Litvan, I. Parkinsonism and Frontotemporal Dementia: The Clinical Overlap. J Mol Neurosci 45, 343–349 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12031-011-9632-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12031-011-9632-1

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