title: Clinical and neuropsychological rating scales for differential diagnosis of dementias.
abstract: Clinical and neuropsychological rating scales were used in two studies of patients. The first one included 20 patients with progressive dementia and was divided into two groups according to their ischemic score evaluation and ancillary examinations (EEG, cerebral evoked potentials, CT scan, Doppler, xenon-133 clearance). The first group consisted of 10 patients with primary degenerative dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT) (n = 10). The second group included 10 patients with dementia caused by multi-infarction (MID). The second study included 18 patients with a confusional state, examined repeatedly for 1-6 months afterwards. The clinical and neuropsychological procedure consisted of a multi-dimensional assessment including 8 rating scales. A significant difference was found in the overall clinical and neuropsychological profile of patients with SDAT and MID. Cognitive functions were homogeneously impaired in the group of SDAT patients and heterogeneously in the group of MID patients. In chronic confusional states the overall profile was similar to that of the group of MID patients. Further reassessment showed a normalization in 9 patients, a vascular MID profile in 6 cases, an SDAT profile in 3 cases, and an undifferentiated one in 2 cases. Reversibility of the confusional state might be predicted at the onset of the cognitive disorder by history-taking and evaluation of the ischemic score.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales