PET

FDG-PET demonstrates frontal and anterior temporal hypometabolism in patients with FTD/Pick's disease. In patients with SD, FDG-PET shows anterior temporal hypometabolism. In progressive non-fluent aphasia the hypometabolism tends to be in the left fronto-insular region.

PIB-PET measures the presence of beta-amyloid, a protein that accumulates in the brain in AD but not in FTLD. PIB-PET can thus be helpful in distinguishing between AD (elevated PET signal in cortex) and FTLD (no cortical signal is seen).