Stability of metabolic and neuropsychological asymmetries in dementia of the Alzheimer type.

We examined right/left asymmetries in cerebral glucose utilization and neuropsychological performance in 16 patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) who were studied twice over a mean interval of 15 months. Neuropsychological asymmetry was expressed as the difference between performance on a visuoconstructive task and a language task. Test/retest comparisons showed significant declines on the neuropsychological measures, but no significant changes in the neuropsychological and metabolic asymmetry indices. At both evaluations, significant correlations were found between neuropsychological asymmetry and metabolic asymmetry in frontal and parietal cortex. Individual patterns of metabolic and neuropsychological asymmetry in these patients with DAT seem to be stable.