The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s National Institute of Health has confirmed for the first time that the symptoms of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) patients in Korea are distinctly different from those in Western countries, based on data from the ‘Brain Disease Research Infrastructure for Data Gathering and Exploration (BRIDGE)’ project. This study analyzed clinical information and MRI data of 225 FTD patients recruited from 11 hospitals in Korea, showing that existing international diagnostic criteria have limitations in accurately diagnosing Korean patients.
FTD is a degenerative dementia that mainly affects relatively younger people aged 50-65, characterized by personality changes, emotional blunting, and language impairment rather than memory decline. Among these, the right temporal variant frontotemporal dementia (rtvFTD) is notable for symptoms such as not recognizing familiar faces or reduced emotional responses, but there are no internationally unified diagnostic criteria for this type yet.
The researchers tested the applicability of two Western diagnostic criteria for rtvFTD (the Amsterdam Diagnostic Tree (ADT) from the Netherlands and the sbvFTD criteria from UCSF in the USA) to Korean patients. The results showed that while face recognition impairment was common in both Western and Korean patients, Korean patients exhibited relatively fewer symptoms of memory impairment, depression, empathy reduction, and obsessive thoughts. Instead, ‘disinhibition’ symptoms, such as socially inappropriate or impulsive behaviors, were more frequently observed in Korean patients.
Professor Eun-Joo Kim, who led the study, emphasized the need for new diagnostic criteria that reflect the unique characteristics of Korean patients, stating that it is difficult to accurately distinguish rtvFTD early with existing international criteria alone. Ko Young-Ho, head of the Brain Disease Research Division at the National Institute of Health, mentioned plans to expand research to develop new diagnostic criteria that reflect the clinical aspects of Koreans, noting that changes such as not recognizing faces or emotional blunting could be early signs of dementia rather than mere personality changes.