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Distinct antemortem profiles in patients with pathologically defined frontotemporal dementia
Grossman M, Libon DJ, Forman MS, Massimo L, Wood E, Moore P, Anderson C, Farmer J et al.. Archives of neurology, 2007-11-01
Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies
Background Clinical-pathologic studies are crucial to understanding brain-behavior relations and improving diagnostic accuracy in neurodegenerative diseases. Objective To establish clinical, neuropsychological, and imaging features of clinically diagnosed patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) that help discriminate between pathologically determined tau-positive FTD, tau-negative FTD, and frontal-variant Alzheimer disease. Design Retrospective clinical-pathologic survey. Setting Academic medical center. Patients Sixty-one participants with the clinical diagnosis of a frontotemporal spectrum disorder who underwent a neuropsychological evaluation and had an autopsy-confirmed disease. Main outcome measures Neuropsychological performance and high-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Results Distinguishing features of patients with tau-positive FTD include visual perceptual-spatial difficulty and an extrapyramidal disorder significantly more often than other patients, significant cortical atrophy in the frontal and parietal regions as evidenced on MRI, and the burden of pathology is greatest in the frontal and parietal regions. Patients with tau-negative FTD are distinguished by their greater difficulties with social, language, and verbally mediated executive functions, significant cortical atrophy in the frontal and temporal regions as evidenced on MRI, and significant frontal and temporal pathology. Patients with Alzheimer disease at autopsy have significantly impaired delayed recall during episodic memory testing; atrophy that involves temporal areas, including the hippocampus, as evidenced on MRI; and widely distributed pathology including the medial temporal structures. A discriminant function analysis grouped patients on the basis of clinical and neuropsychological features with 87.5% accuracy. Conclusion Clinical, neuropsychological, and imaging profiles can contribute to accurate antemortem diagnosis in FTD.
Key findings
- Results Distinguishing features of patients with tau-positive FTD include visual perceptual-spatial difficulty and an extrapyramidal disorder significantly more often than other patients, significant cortical atrophy in the frontal and parietal regions as evidenced on MRI, and the burden of pathology is greatest in the frontal and parietal regions.
- Patients with tau-negative FTD are distinguished by their greater difficulties with social, language, and verbally mediated executive functions, significant cortical atrophy in the frontal and temporal regions as evidenced on MRI, and significant frontal and temporal pathology.
- Patients with Alzheimer disease at autopsy have significantly impaired delayed recall during episodic memory testing; atrophy that involves temporal areas, including the hippocampus, as evidenced on MRI; and widely distributed pathology including the medial temporal structures.
Why it matters
In 61 autopsy-confirmed cases, this study identified clinical, neuropsychological and MRI features that help distinguish tau-positive frontotemporal dementia, tau-negative frontotemporal dementia and frontal-variant Alzheimer disease. These findings are about improving diagnosis of these conditions, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Study details
- Effect size87.5%
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 45/100
Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 7 / 10 | Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Archives of neurology) |
| Journal's citation record | 3 / 4 | Archives of Neurology: journal h-index 353 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 1 / 5 | 2007 — within 20 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 2 / 3 | Effect reported as a number, without an interval or test |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 4 / 7 | Cited 97 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 2 / 5 | 4.6 citations a year over 21 year(s) since 2007 |
| Impact for its field and year | 3 / 6 | Cited 7.5× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 3 / 6 | Cited by 11 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 1 / 4 | Cited 4 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 4 / 4 | Last-listed author John Q. Trojanowski: h-index 255 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 2 / 3 | University of Pennsylvania: institution h-index 1,859 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 0 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 1 institution(s) in 1 country — scores zero (affiliation lists can be incomplete) |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 17998442) |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Total | 45 / 100 | — |
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Read the original
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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Grossman, M., Libon, D. J., Forman, M. S., Massimo, L., Wood, E., Moore, P., et al. (2007). Distinct antemortem profiles in patients with pathologically defined frontotemporal dementia. Archives of neurology. https://doi.org/10.1001/archneur.64.11.1601
Vancouver
Grossman M, Libon DJ, Forman MS, Massimo L, Wood E, Moore P, et al. Distinct antemortem profiles in patients with pathologically defined frontotemporal dementia. Archives of neurology. 2007. doi:10.1001/archneur.64.11.1601. PMID: 17998442.
BibTeX
@article{grossman2007-17998442,
author = {Grossman, M. and Libon, D. J. and Forman, M. S. and Massimo, L. and Wood, E. and Moore, P. and Anderson, C. and Farmer, J. and others},
title = {{Distinct antemortem profiles in patients with pathologically defined frontotemporal dementia}},
journal = {Archives of neurology},
year = {2007},
doi = {10.1001/archneur.64.11.1601},
pmid = {17998442},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1001/archneur.64.11.1601}
}
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