Neuropsychological tests as discriminators between dementia of alzheimer type and frontotemporal dementia

✍ Scribed by Christina Elfgren; Arne Brun; Lars Gustafson; Aki Johanson; Lennart Minthon; Ulla Passant; Jarl Risberg

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 700 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/gps.930090807

✦ Synopsis

The aim of this study was to examine whether cognitive test performance alone could distinguish patients with dementia ofAlzheimer type (DAT) from those with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Scores from three neuropsychological tests were used as discriminating variables in 28 cases with postmortem verified diagnoses. The selected tests measured verbal ability, visuospatial ability and verbal memory. Eighty-nine per cent of the sample was correctly classified by discriminant analysis. Evaluating the ability of the obtained discriminant function to differentiate between groups of DAT and FTD in a new, clinically diagnosed sample of 38 cases yielded an overall success rate of 84%. The results suggest that cognitive tests may be helpful for differential diagnosis in the context of a neuropsychiatric examination.

KEY WORDS-Dementia of Alzheimer type, frontotemporal dementia, neuropsychological tests, discriminant analysis, postmortem examination, clinical diagnosis, regional cerebral blood flow.