Abstract

GRANADILLO DE LUQUE, Jorge Luis  and  ZARANTE, Ignacio. Genetics of Frontotemporal Dementia. rev.colomb.psiquiatr. [online]. 2008, vol.37, n.1, pp.94-112. ISSN 0034-7450.

Introduction: Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the circumscribed atrophy of the frontal and temporal lobes along with progressive and insidious changes in behaviour and/or language impairment. Objective: To review FTD, emphasizing its genetic bases. Methods: Review of the current medical literature about the subject. Results: Families with a dominant autosomic inheritance pattern of this disease have been recently studied and different causal genes have been found, the most important being the microtubule associated protein tau gene and the progranulin gene, among others. Conclusions: It is important to consider a genetic approach in the assessment of a patient with FTD, investigating deeply into his family background. This way a proper genetic counseling can be performed thus solving the main doubts that the patient and relatives may have.

Keywords : Dementia; genetics; tau proteins; progranulin.

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