Alzheimer's disease compared with cerebrovascular dementia. Neuropsychological similarities and differences.
Forty-eight patients with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, 30 patients with cerebrovascular dementia, and 48 normal controls were assessed with a battery of neuropsychological tests designed to measure the following cognitive processes: orientation to time and place, memory, visual-perceptual and constructional skills, language, conceptualization, attention, and executive functions (planning, self-regulation and fine motor coordination). The differences detected were in orientation to time and place, in immediate and delayed recall of a short story, and in naming in which the patients with Alzheimer's disease were significantly disadvantaged. Vice versa, in attention processes, self-regulation, planning, and fine motor coordination tasks the patients with cerebrovascular dementia were more severely impaired; these disturbances resemble some of those occurring in frontal lobe syndromes.
Villardita
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Chair of Neurologic Rehabilitation, University of Catania, Italy.
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index