Tau‐PET imaging with ¹⁸F‐PI‐2620 reveals lateralized distribution of tau pathology in critical language regions in patients with early onset of Alzheimer’s Disease and patients with primary progressive aphasia

Background Language disorders are frequent in patients advanced and early stages of dementia (Goth & Strøm, 2018) together with the deterioration other cognitive domains (e.g., memory) (Taler Phillips, 2008). The first complaint people often is language impairment, even preceding declines (Ferris Farlow, 2013). Logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA) non-fluent/agrammatic PPA (nf/avPPA) rare neurodegenerative being impairment main feature (Gono-Tempini, 2011). Both β-amyloid (Aβ) tau appear to occur Alzheimer disease (AD). Moreover, Aβ aggregates also represent underlying pathology lvPPA (Montembeault et al. while nf/avPPA resembles a pure tau-pathology. purpose this study explore distribution tau-pathology critical regions early-onset AD (EOAD) diagnosed (PPA). Method Eight participants (55-77y): 4 EOAD, 3 (these seven additionally had positive 18F-Florbetaben Amyloid PET), 1 nf/avPPA, 14 healthy controls (HC) (age range 54-76y) underwent dynamic PET scans 18F-PI-2620 examine following cortical regions: inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), superior temporal (STG), supramarginal angular (PL). Group differences were examined using standardized uptake value ratios (SUVRs) normalized gray matter cerebellum. Result Compared HC, 3/4 EOAD showed elevated levels binding, mainly right IFG IPL left STG, (2 nf/avPPA) lateralized all regions. All increased binding predominantly parietal Conclusion Our preliminary results reveal pattern particularly those PPA. These findings suggest that imaging promising tool visualize aggregations However, further studies needed confirm these results.