Attentional disorder in vascular dementia.
Clinical trials in vascular cognitive impairment are in their infancy. The current narrow definitions of vascular dementia (VaD) should be broadened. VaD is characterised by a specific cognitive profile involving preserved memory with impairments in attentional and executive functioning. The present study aimed at a) Investigating whether VaD/pts showed the marked decrease in selective attentional functioning different from the healthy ageing population; b) Determining norms for the Digit Symbol Coding (DSC) task performance for the Georgian elderly population. Case-control study of selective attentional performance was conducted by forming groups of 15 VaD/pts (mean age M=65,6; SD=8,64), 64 young (aged 17-25 years with M=20,69; SD=2.97) and 64 healthy old subjects (aged 50-75 years with M=59,77; SD=7,13). Severity levels of dementia determined by MMSE. VaD/pts were administered the qualitative assessment procedure of aphasia for excluding the cases with aphasia. The selective attentional functioning was studies by the DSC task. A statistically significant difference was detected on the DSC task for the three study groups F(2,62)=87,030, p<.0001 using one-way ANOVA. Norms for the selective attention functioning were prepared for the Georgian elderly population. The study results showed that attentional disorder is a prominent characteristic of VaD. The DSC task reveals ageing effect and differentiates performance of VaD/pts from the performance of normal elderly participants.
Inasaridze
K
K
Tbilisi State Medical University, Georgia.
Sikharulidze
G
G
Malishava
T
T
Zviadadze
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged