The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	Neuropsychological differentiation between dementia of Alzheimer type and vascular dementia using mini-mental state examination (MMSE)
Language	J
AuthorList	Nobuya Kawahata¹⁾, Chiharu Goto²⁾, Sakura Yokoyama²⁾
Affiliation	1) Department of Neurology, Narita Memorial Hospital 2) Department of Speech Therapy, Narita Memorial Hospital
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 17 (3), 223-229, 2001
Received	Oct 23, 2000
Accepted	May 3, 2001
Abstract	To detect neuropsychological evaluation of disease progression between dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT) and vascular dementia (VD), 97 patients with DAT, 39 patients with VD, and 122 control subjects without cognitive dysfunction were selected from the Memory Clinic. We compared the scores for items of the Japanese version of mini-mental state examination (MMSE) in the control subjects and patients with DAT or VD. The severity of dementia was assessed with the Japanese version of Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale ADAS-J cog. (mild stage: score lower than or equal to 19, 54 patients with DAT, 25 patients with VD; intermediate stage: score 20 to 35, 25 patients with DAT, 9 patients with VD; severe stage: score greater than or equal to 36, 18 patients with DAT, 5 patients with VD). In the mild stage of both DAT and VD, the orientation for time and place, calculation, and 3-stage command tasks were statistically significant as compared with those in the control subjects. These tasks were useful discriminators of mildly demented patients from healthy subjects without cognitive dysfunction. In the mild DAT group, significant impairment in the task of recall of three objects was confirmed as compared with the patients with VD. The mild VD group, in the other hand, performed significantly worse on the writing and copying task as compared with the mild DAT group.
Keywords	dementia of Alzheimer type, Alzheimer's disease assessment scale (ADAS), cognitive function, mini-mental state examination, vascular dementia (small vessel disease with dementia)