Can clock drawing test help to differentiate between dementia of the Alzheimer's type and vascular dementia? A preliminary study

Abstract

CDT scored according to a comprehensive technique may be of value in differentiating DAT from VD patients. We hypothesize that the classificatory ability of Freedman's method might be attributed to its presumed sensitivity to impaired executive functioning which is more pronounced in VD compared with DAT patients.

Drawing Disorders in Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Forms of Dementia

“…Wiechmann et al [123] did not find difference in accuracy on CDT between AD and VaD. Instead, in a study on a sample of outpatients matched for general cognitive impairment VaD scored significantly lower than AD on CDT, likely related to poorer executive abilities in VaD patients [124]. Kitabayashi et al [125] stratified their patient sample by general cognitive impairment, and found [125] CDT Conceptual and spatial/planning errors in AD in all disease stages; conceptual and graphic errors in moderate-severe VaD Fukui [126] CDT, figure copying No difference at mild disease stages; sVaD worse than AD on both tasks at severe stages Graham [127] ROCF No difference between AD and sVaD Comparison AD-FTD Rascovsky [131] CDT, figure copying AD worse than FTD on overall CDT score; no differences in figure copying Blair [132] CDT AD worse than FTD; less conceptual, spatial and planning errors in FTD than in AD Razani [133] CDT AD worse than right-and left-onset FTD Thompson [134] Figure copying AD worse than FTD; less spatial errors, but more perseverations in FTD than in AD Possin [135] Simplified ROCF AD worse than FTD Perri [136] ROCF AD worse than FTD Gorno-Tempini [137] ROCF AD worse than non fluent PA Grossi [138] ROCF No difference between AD and bvFTD Gasparini [139] ROCF No overall difference between AD and bvFTD; AD better than bvFTD in drawing details Rascovsky [141] Figure copying…”

Do age and education contribute to performance on the clock drawing test? Normative data for the Greek population

“…More recently, it has been used as a screening method for cognitive impairment (Shulman, 2000), especially in the elderly (Nishiwaki et al, 2004). Patients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type (Bozikas et al, 2003;Freedman et al, 1994;Heinik, Solomesh, Raikher, & Lin, 2002;Libon, Swenson, Barnoski, & Sands, 1993;Rouleau, Salmon, & Butters, 1996;Rouleau, Salmon, Butters, Kennedy, & McGuire, 1992), Huntington's disease (Rouleau et al, 1992), Parkinson's disease (Freedman et al, 1994), vascular disease (Heinik et al, 2002), schizophrenia (Bozikas et al, 2004;Bozikas et al, 2003;Herrman et al, 1999), stroke (Lieberman et al, 1999), and visuo-spatial neglect (Di Pellegrino, 1995) have all demonstrated significant impairment on the CDT.…”

Rivastigmine in prevention of delirium in a 65 years old man with Parkinson's disease

“…Surprisingly, Philpot misses the point that screening tests such as the clock drawing test are not in any way designed to be diagnostic. He seems to have been derailed by the diagnostic terms used by Heinik et al (2002) in their clock drawing paper published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. If one reads the title carefully, 'Can the clock drawing test help to differentiate between dementia of the Alzheimer's type and vascular dementia?…”