[Occult CSF flow disturbance of patients with Alzheimer type dementia and vascular dementia--results from iotrolan CT-cisternography].

We report results of Iotrolan CT-cisternography on 41 demented patients (13 males and 28 females) to find "occult normal pressure hydrocephalus". These patients were suspected to have CSF flow disturbance from clinical symptoms and simple brain CT scan findings. Their average age, duration of dementia, and score of Hasegawa's dementia scale (HDS) were 76.2 years, 5.9 years, 9.5/32.5, respectively. Before performing CT-cisternography, clinical diagnosis for their dementia were vascular dementia in 18 patients, Alzheimer type dementia in 12, suspect of NPH in 5, and other diagnoses in 6. From the results of cisternography, we found 13 patients with CSF flow disturbance (contrast material remained in the ventricle more than 48 hours after injection), and 17 patients with normal CSF flow. The former showed lower scores of HDS, higher urinary incontinence scores and smaller areas of the interhemispheric fissure on CT scan than the latter. But the former showed no significant difference from the latter in the average age, duration of dementia and width of the ventricles.