A frontotemporal dementia-like syndrome mimicking postpartum depression detected by 18F fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography.

FDG (fluorodeoxyglucose) PET (positron emission tomography) is a useful tool in the clinical workup of patients being evaluated for dementing illnesses. It is particularly effective at differentiating primary neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer disease from alternative considerations including frontotemporal dementia. We present the case of a patient with peripartum antibody-mediated voltage-gated potassium channel encephalitis whose FDG PET findings were suggestive of frontotemporal dementia-like disorder. Voltage-gated potassium channel antibody-mediated encephalitis is an increasingly described clinical phenomenon whose presentation may mimic primary neurodegenerative diseases.