Distinguishing Alzheimer's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies using cognitive and olfactory measures.
OBJECTIVE
Given poor sensitivity of the diagnostic criteria in identifying dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), the use of cognitive and olfactory measures to distinguish Alzheimer's disease (AD) from DLB was assessed.


METHODS
Twenty-six patients with DLB and 60 patients with AD were administered several cognitive measures and the Brief Smell Identification Task (BSIT).


RESULTS
Patients with DLB performed significantly worse on the BSIT and visuoconstruction tasks than patients with AD, but significantly better on delayed recall of a word list. Sensitivity and specificity of these measures in identifying DLB are presented for each of these tasks alone and in combination. The best balance of sensitivity and specificity was found with a combination of the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test and BSIT (81% sensitivity, 90% specificity).


CONCLUSIONS
These data have practical implications by providing cut scores than can be used to emphasize either specificity or sensitivity in identifying patients with DLB.
Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Holly James
HJ
Westervelt
Department of Psychology, University of Missouri.
Jared M
JM
Bruce
Graduate School of Nursing, University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Melanie A
MA
Faust
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020961:Lewy Body Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012903:Smell; D014706:Verbal Learning