title: Cognitive profiles in degenerative dementia without evidence of small vessel pathology and small vessel vascular dementia.
abstract: Although a large number of studies have examined possible differences in cognitive performance between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD), the data in the literature are conflicting. The aims of this study were to analyze the neuropsychological pattern of subjects affected by degenerative dementia without evidence of small vessel pathology (DD) and small vessel VaD subjects in the early stages and to investigate differences in the progression of cognitive impairment. Seventy-five patients with probable VaD and 75 patients with probable DD were included. All the subjects underwent a standard neuropsychological evaluation, including the following test: Visual Search, Attentional matrices, Story Recall, Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices, Phonological and Semantic Verbal Fluency, Token, and Copying Drawings. The severity of cognitive impairment was stratified according to the MMSE score. Fifteen subjects with probable DD and 10 subjects with probable VaD underwent a 12-month cognitive re-evaluation. No significant difference was found between DD and VaD subjects in any of the neuropsychological tests except Story Recall in the mild cognitive impairment (P < 0.001). The re-test value was significantly worse than the baseline value in the MMSE (P = 0.037), Corsi (P = 0.041), Story Recall (P = 0.032), Phonological Verbal Fluency (P = 0.02), and Copying Drawings (P = 0.043) in DD patients and in the Visual Search test (P = 0.036) in VaD subjects. These results suggest that a neuropsychological evaluation might help to differentiate degenerative dementia without evidence of small vessel pathology from small vessel VaD in the early stages of these diseases.
authors.affiliation: NESMOS Department, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, via di Grottarossa 1035-1039, 00189, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Carolis
authors.affiliation: NESMOS Department, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, via di Grottarossa 1035-1039, 00189, Rome, Italy. virg87@hotmail.it.
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cipollini
authors.affiliation: NESMOS Department, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, via di Grottarossa 1035-1039, 00189, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Donato
authors.affiliation: NESMOS Department, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, via di Grottarossa 1035-1039, 00189, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Micaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sepe-Monti
authors.affiliation: NESMOS Department, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, via di Grottarossa 1035-1039, 00189, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Orzi
authors.affiliation: NESMOS Department, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, via di Grottarossa 1035-1039, 00189, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Giubilei
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Cognitive Impairment; Evaluation; Neuropsychological; Vascular dementia