Patterns of neuropsychological impairment in frontotemporal dementia.
OBJECTIVE
To differentiate frontotemporal dementia (FTD) subtypes from each other and from probable Alzheimer disease (AD) using neuropsychological tests.


METHODS
Patients with FTD and AD (n = 109) were studied with a comprehensive neuropsychological protocol at first contact. Data were subjected to a principal components analysis (PCA) to extract core neuropsychological features. A five-factor solution accounted for 72.89% of the variance and yielded factors related to declarative memory, working memory/visuoconstruction, processing speed/mental flexibility, lexical retrieval, and semantic memory.


RESULTS
Between- and within-group analyses revealed that patients with AD obtain their lowest scores on tests of declarative memory while semantic dementia (SemD) patients are particularly disadvantaged on tests of semantic memory. On tests of processing speed/mental flexibility time to completion was faster for social comportment/dysexecutive (SOC/EXEC) patients, but these patients made more errors on some tests. Patients with corticobasal degeneration (CBD) and progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA) were impaired on tests of working memory. Logistic regression analyses using factor scores successfully assigned FTD subgroups and AD patients into their respective diagnostic categories.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with differing frontotemporal dementia phenotypes can be distinguished from each other and from Alzheimer disease using neuropsychological tests.
Libon
D J
DJ
New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Osteopathic Medicine, Suite 1800, 42 East Laurel Rd., Stratford, NJ 08084, USA. libondj@UMDNJ.edu
Xie
S X
SX
Moore
P
P
Farmer
J
J
Antani
S
S
McCawley
G
G
Cross
K
K
Grossman
M
M
D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D003704:Dementia / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011596:Psychomotor Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity