Recognition Memory and Verbal Fluency Differentiate Probable Alzheimer Disease From Subcortical Ischemic Vascular Dementia

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Abstract
ALZHEIMER disease (AD) and cerebrovascular disease (CVD) are the most common causes of dementia in the world.1,2 For several reasons, however, differential diagnosis of AD vs vascular dementia (VaD) has proved difficult. First, there is still no specific biological marker for AD.3 Second, although structural neuroimaging studies (eg, computed tomography [CT] or magnetic resonance imaging) can detect relatively small infarcts or hemorrhages—the most specific hallmarks of CVD—they may be considered too expensive for epidemiological surveys4 or unnecessary for diagnosis in managed care settings. Once dementia is identified, a short neuropsychological examination to determine the likelihood of AD vs VaD or AD vs non-AD dementia would be useful. In this study, we use evidence-based methods to assess the utility of neuropsychological testing to differentiate dementia due to AD vs 1 subtype of VaD.

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