title: Impaired abstract thinking may discriminate between normal aging and vascular mild cognitive impairment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Cerebrovascular disease (CVD) is associated with cognitive deficits. This cross-sectional study examines differences among healthy elderly controls and patients with vascular mild cognitive impairment (VaMCI) and vascular dementia (VaD) in performances on CAMCOG subscales.
  
  
  METHODS
  Elderly individuals (n=61) were divided into 3 groups, according to cognitive and neuroimaging status: 16 controls, 20 VaMCI and 25 VaD. VaMCI and VaD individuals scored over 4 points on the Hachinski Ischemic Scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant differences in total CAMCOG scores were observed across the three groups (p<0.001). VaD subjects performed worse than those with VaMCI in most CAMCOG subscales (p<0.001). All subscales showed differences between controls and VaD (p<0.001). Performance on abstract thinking showed difference between VaMCI and controls (p<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CAMCOG discriminated controls from VaMCI and VaD. Assessment of abstract thinking may be useful as a screening item for diagnosis of VaMCI.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry Institute, Federal University Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. fksudo@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Felipe Kenji
authors.initials: FK
authors.lastname: Sudo
authors.forename: Gilberto Sousa
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.forename: Carlos Eduardo de Oliveira
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.forename: Maria Elisa
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Lanna
authors.forename: Letice
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ericeira-Valente
authors.forename: Denise Madeira
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Moreira
authors.forename: Eliasz
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Engelhardt
authors.forename: Jerson
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Laks
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*