Frontotemporal dementia (ftd)

[Oralee]

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) refers to sporadic and hereditary disorders that affect the frontal and temporal lobes, including Pick disease.
(See also Overview of Delirium and Dementia and Dementia.)
Dementia is chronic, global, usually irreversible deterioration of cognition. Frontotemporal dementia accounts for up to 10% of dementias. Age at onset is typically younger (age 55 to 65) than in Alzheimer disease. FTDs affect men and women about equally.
Pick disease is a term used to describe pathologic changes in FTD, including severe atrophy, neuronal loss, gliosis, and presence of abnormal neurons (Pick cells) containing inclusions (Pick bodies).
About half of FTDs are inherited; most mutations involve chromosome 17q21-22 and result in abnormalities of the microtubule-binding tau protein; thus, FTDs are considered tauopathies. Some experts classify supranuclear palsy and corticobasal degeneration with FTDs because they share similar pathology and gene mutations affecting the tau protein. Symptoms, gene mutations, and pathologic changes may not correspond to each other. For example, the same mutation causes FTD symptoms in one family member but symptoms of corticobasal degeneration in another.
Dementia should not be confused with delirium, although cognition is disordered in both. The following helps distinguish them:

Dementia affects mainly memory, is typically caused by anatomic changes in the brain, has slower onset, and is generally irreversible.
Delirium affects mainly attention, is typically caused by acute illness or drug toxicity (sometimes life threatening), and is often reversible.

Other specific characteristics also help distinguish the dementia and delirium (see table Differences Between Delirium and Dementia ).