Neuropsychological Heterogeneity in Mild Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

In order to investigate neuropsychological differences in patients with mild AD, we carried out a pilot study on 28 patients with a clinical diagnosis of mild dementia (CDR: 0.5–1) using an extensive neuropsychological battery, in comparison with 28 normal controls. The results of a cluster analysis, applied on the neuropsychological variables, showed the existence of at least two main subgroups of patients. Cluster 1 patients had a mean age of 61.1 years and showed a greater impairment on measures of language, abstract reasoning and verbal fluency; cluster 2 patients, with a mean age of 72.0, had more severe impairment in memory function. These preliminary results may suggest the existence of different subtypes of AD characterized by selective neuropsychological deterioration in the early stages of the disease.

Temporal Quantification of Alzheimer's Disease Severity: 'Time Index' Model

“…Neuropathological studies have generally sought to establish orders of severi ty [68] by demonstrating variations in senile plaque [2,69] or neurofibrillary pathology [70] or loss of synapses [71][72][73][74], However, neuropathology cannot address varia tions in rate of progression. Alternatively, several studies in living patients have pointed to heterogeneity in the clinical presentation of cognitive abnormalities in AD patients [42,[75][76][77][78], The cognitive variations between patients are particularly prominent in mild stages of the illness [79], when clinical symptoms are the manifestation of disease affecting the relatively intact, complex nervous system [80] with sociocultural overlays. Further, AD may be caused by a variety of different etiological agents which can increase the potential variation of the presentation.…”

Drug Treatment in Lewy Body Dementia

“…This was performed by a psychologist, and was carried out as previously described [9] with the use of Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) [10], and of tests for which Italian norms are available, allowing correction for age, gender, and education [9].…”

Age at Onset and Regional Cerebral Glucose Metabolism in Alzheimer’s Disease

“…Early-onset patients have greater degree of language, visuospatial or attentional disturbances [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10], and they have a more rapid progression of cognitive deficits [9,11,12]. However, Binetti et al [13] reported a better performance on a memory task in early-than late-onset patients. The underlying pathophysiology of the onset-age effect is still uncertain, and a considerable number of researchers has assessed this issue.…”