Relations between neuropsychological and cerebral metabolic asymmetries in early Alzheimer's disease.

Regional CMRglc (rCMRglc) values were determined with positron emission tomography (PET) in 10 patients with mild to moderate clinically diagnosed Alzheimer's disease (AD) and in 26 healthy controls. rCMRglc in frontal, parietal, and temporal association cortices were significantly more laterally asymmetrical in AD patients than in controls (p less than 0.05). Furthermore, lateral asymmetry of rCMRglc in AD patients but not in the control subjects correlated significantly with asymmetry of language and visuospatial functions such that lower left than right rCMRglc was associated with relatively greater impairment of language and vice versa. The results demonstrate that discrepancies between language and visuospatial deficits in patients with early AD are related to asymmetrical reductions in cerebral cortical glucose metabolism.