Epidemiology of Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration in Northern Finland

Laura Luukkainen; Risto Bloigu; Virpi Moilanen; Anne Marja Remes

doi:10.1159/000440858

Epidemiology of Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration in Northern Finland

Dement Geriatr Cogn Dis Extra. 2015 Nov 24;5(3):435-41. doi: 10.1159/000440858. eCollection 2015 Sep-Dec.

Authors

Laura Luukkainen¹, Risto Bloigu², Virpi Moilanen³, Anne Marja Remes⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland ; Department of Neurology, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland.
² Medical Informatics Group, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
³ Department of Neurology, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland.
⁴ Department of Neurology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland ; Department of Neurology, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland.

Abstract

Background: Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is responsible for as many as every fifth case of early-onset dementia. Very few epidemiological studies of FTLD have been conducted; there are no published epidemiological data of FTLD from Finland or the other Nordic countries. The C9ORF72 expansion-associated FTLD is common in Finland; thus, the prevalence of FTLD is expected to be high in this population.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the incidence and prevalence of FTLD in university hospital settings in Northern Finland.

Results: The mean 1-year incidence of FTLD was 5.54/100,000 (range 1.9-11.3/100,000) in the population aged 45-65 years. The prevalence of FTLD in the same age group was 20.5/100,000.

Conclusion: The incidence and prevalence of FTLD in Finland seem to be the highest in Europe. However, studies from different countries may not be directly mutually comparable due to methodological issues.

Keywords: Behavioral variant; Epidemiology; Frontotemporal dementia; Incidence; Prevalence; Progressive nonfluent aphasia; Semantic dementia.