Executive functioning in Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.
OBJECTIVE
To compare performance of patients with mild-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) on tests of executive functioning and working memory.


METHODS
Patients with AD (n = 76) and VaD (n = 46) were recruited from a memory clinic along with dementia free participants (n = 28). They underwent specific tests of working memory from the Cognitive Drug Research (CDR) battery and pen and paper tests of executive function including CLOX 1 & 2, EXIT25 and a test of verbal fluency (COWAT). All patients had a CT brain scan which was independently scored for white matter change/ischaemia.


RESULTS
The AD and VaD groups were significantly impaired on all measures of working memory and executive functioning compared to the disease free group. There were no significant differences between the AD and VaD groups on any measure. Z-scores confirmed the pattern of impairment in executive functioning and working memory was largely equivalent in both patient groups. Small to moderate correlations were seen between the MMSE and the neurocognitive scores in both patient groups and the pattern of correlations was also very similar in both patient groups.


CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates sizeable executive functioning and working memory impairments in patients with mild-moderate AD and VaD but no significant differences between the disease groups.
McGuinness
B
B
Geriatric Medicine, Centre for Public Health, School of Medicine, Dentistry & Biomedical Sciences, Whitla Medical Building, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK. b.mcguinness@qub.ac.uk
Barrett
S L
SL
Craig
D
D
Lawson
J
J
Passmore
A P
AP
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012016:Reference Values; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed