Things we know, things we wish we knew: challenging in diagnosing frontotemporal dementia

Understanding of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) has increased markedly since the publication of the first consensus diagnostic criteria in 1998. Nevertheless, early and accurate diagnosis of this younger-onset dementia remains fraught with challenges, due to the variable clinical profiles and variable brain pathologies. This uncertainty has important implications for prognostication and for the management and treatment of the disease.

This presentation will provide an overview of the complexity of FTD and will review recent work done by our group tackling these issues.

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About the presenter

Professor Olivier Piguet

Olivier Piguet is Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology and NHMRC Leadership Fellow at the University of Sydney where he is the director of FRONTIER, the frontotemporal dementia clinical research group at the Brain and Mind Centre in Sydney, Australia. He is a clinical neuropsychologist with over 20 years clinical experience in the field of frontotemporal dementia and related conditions. Olivier trained in Geneva and Melbourne and completed his PhD at the University of Sydney, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research program investigates early clinical markers of frontotemporal dementia, prediction of disease progression and relations to biomarkers, genetics and brain pathology. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed journal articles on these topics, attracting >19,000 citations. Olivier is a founding member of the International Society for the Frontotemporal Dementias and current President of ASSBI, the Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment.