My dad had a brain scan and I would like to know more about the results?

Hi WRL.

Sorry to hear your Dad has dementia. I hope he's going okay.

To break down the report.

"Mild global brain parenchymal atrophy is noted"
This means that overall, your Dad's brain has started to show signs of 'atrophy', which is a shrinking of the brain volume. This is a normal process that happens to our brains as we get older. And it's more exaggerated in those with dementia and Alzheimer's.

"There is minimal ill defined hypodensity in the periventricular white matter at frontal lobes, suggestive of minimal small vessel ischemic disease."
This means that in the frontal lobes, the areas in the front of the brain, above the eyes, your Dad has small areas that are darker on CT than the areas surrounding them. This is generally a sign that these areas have lost blood supply and have started to stop working properly. In severe cases, these dark 'spots' indicate that a stroke has occurred in this part of the brain and the dark spots are areas of dead or dying brain tissue, due to a lack of blood/oxygen. However in your Dad's case, the radiologist has noted that these are minimal and are probably due to a loss of full blood supply over a long period of time, related to the aging process, rather than an acute or severe stroke.

"No hemorrhage or mass and no hydrocephalus is present. Grey matter differentiation is preserved. Bony skull is unremarkable."
This is essentially saying that your Dad has no visible bleeds in his brain, no tumours, and his overall brain tissue has not lost the borders between the two types of brain tissue (grey and white), which is an indication of the overall health of the brain. There's also no tumours or fractures of his skull.

So essentially, your Dad's brain sounds pretty normal for an older man, and he has signs of very slight loss of blood to the brain in his frontal lobe, which is due to the aging of his blood vessels.

This is pretty much a 'normal' study for an older patient.

You've got nothing drastic to worry about.

Hope that helps.

Have a great one.

Jake.