title: Portuguese version of Wechsler Memory Scale-3rd edition's utility with demented elderly adults.
abstract: The purpose of this study is to analyze the utility of the Portuguese version of the Wechsler Memory Scale-3rd edition (WMS-III) with demented elderly people, namely its capacity to detect and discriminate between subcortical vascular dementia (SVD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). We assessed early demented patients (SVD = 16; AD = 36) aged 65 or older who were compared to a control group (n = 40). Both clinical groups were adequately matched in terms of disease severity, overall cognitive functioning, depressive symptomatology, and pre-morbid intelligence. Between-group's differences were evaluated using the Quade's rank analysis of covariance. We also computed indexes and subtests optimal cut-off scores, and the corresponding sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values, which were able to successfully discriminate between patients and healthy subjects. The SVD patients had a better overall memory performance than AD patients on the majority of the indexes and the delayed condition subtests of the WMS-III. The AD patients only showed a better performance on digit span subtest. Several measures discriminated patients from healthy subjects. This study suggests some recommendations for the diagnostic accuracy of the Portuguese version of WMS-III in dementia and about differential diagnosis between SVD and AD.
authors.affiliation: a Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences , University of Coimbra , Coimbra , Portugal.
authors.forename: Cátia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.affiliation: a Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences , University of Coimbra , Coimbra , Portugal.
authors.forename: Maria S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Pinho
authors.affiliation: b Neurology Department , Entre o Douro e o Vouga Hospital Center , Santa Maria da Feira , Portugal.
authors.forename: Vítor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cruz
authors.affiliation: c Neurology Department , Coimbra Hospital and University Center , Coimbra , Portugal.
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gens
authors.affiliation: c Neurology Department , Coimbra Hospital and University Center , Coimbra , Portugal.
authors.forename: Fátima
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: b Neurology Department , Entre o Douro e o Vouga Hospital Center , Santa Maria da Feira , Portugal.
authors.forename: Joana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pais
authors.affiliation: d Neurology Department , Baixo Vouga Hospital Center , Aveiro , Portugal.
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rente
authors.affiliation: c Neurology Department , Coimbra Hospital and University Center , Coimbra , Portugal.
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Santana
authors.affiliation: d Neurology Department , Baixo Vouga Hospital Center , Aveiro , Portugal.
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Santos
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011174:Portugal; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D014175:Translating; D014888:Wechsler Scales
keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Wechsler Memory Scale-III; memory; subcortical vascular dementia