What is corticobasal degeneration?
Corticobasal degeneration is a neurodegenerative disease affecting the cortex and basal ganglia of the brain. It is rare, affects about five to seven of every 100,000 people and usually does not appear only after the age of 60. The diagnosis is difficult because corticobasal degeneration has symptoms similar to other neurodegenerative conditions and can be definitively diagnosed. There is currently no known cause of the disease.
Corticobasal degeneration is a slow, progressive disease, which means that the brain gradually degenerates, causing symptoms to deteriorate over time. Symptoms include uncontrolled rhythmic muscle contractions, reduced movement, muscle rigidity, disturbed balance, alien syndrome, or inability to feel and control hand movements, apraxia, or inability to control the movement of the limbs and afasia or loss of speech. Psychological and cognitive symptoms, including irritability, dementia and depřimuission, are also common. This cluster of symptoms is sometimes indicatedCorticular syndrome (CBS) or corticobasal degeneration syndrome (CBD), because the definitive diagnosis of corticobasal degeneration is not possible when alive.
imaging techniques including fluorodopa Po positron emission tomography (FDOPA PET), displaying magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and one -time emissions of computer tomography (SPECT) are sometimes used in a patient with CBS, although they are generally impassable. However, such techniques may allow corticobasal degeneration in the future. FDOPA PET is used to diagnose impaired dopamine absorption in affected areas of the brain. MRI can identify atrophy or waste structures in the brain and SPECT examines the perfusion or supply of blood in the brain, which usually decreases in patients with CBS.
Corticobasal degeneration was timely poorly diagnosed as progressive supranuclear palsy, Parkinson's disease and various formsDementia, including Alzheimer's disease. The CBS can be progressed by frontotemporal dementia, degenerative diseases of the frontal and time lobes of the brain. While the symptoms of CBS do not equal with any of these other conditions, allowing some to eliminate the causes in some patients, not all possible symptoms are always present and it is often impossible to completely exclude other diseases. There is no cure for CBS and the prognosis is very poor, with most patients dying until eight years old. Treatment focuses on alleviating symptoms and may include dopaminergic drugs as well as speech therapy that deals with aphasia and methods to help the patient move and eat.
corticobasal degeneration can be diagnosed with histological or microscopic examination of brain tissue. The unnaturally high levels of the Tau protein, along with the astroglial incluseminebo abnormal growth of astrocytes, the support cell of the brain, testifies to the condition. Method most commonly used to detect these symptoms is the coloring method GAllyas-Braak.