title: Differentiating Alzheimer's disease from subcortical vascular dementia with the FAB test.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The frontal assessment battery (FAB) test is a composite tool for assessing executive functions related to the frontal lobe. Neuropsychological and blood-flow studies indicate distinct patterns of deterioration of anterior and posterior cortical function in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and subcortical vascular dementia (VD) patients. We predict that the FAB score may be useful for discriminating VD from AD.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the clinical usefulness of the FAB test for differential diagnosis of AD and VD.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared FAB scores in 25 patients with AD, 27 patients with VD, and 80 age-matched normal control subjects. The AD group was matched for age, education and MMSE score with the VD group. The subtest scores in FAB were also compared among the three groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The FAB scores were significantly decreased in both the AD and VD groups compared to the control group, and the reduction were greater in the VD group. Among the FAB subtests, mental flexibility (phonological verbal fluency) was the only subtest that significantly discriminated VD from the other two groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The FAB test can provide useful information for differentiating AD and VD at the bedside.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Neurology, Hematology & Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, Izumo, Japan. oguro@med.shimane-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Oguro
authors.forename: Shuhei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ishida
authors.forename: Hirokazu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bokura
authors.forename: Shotai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity