A Comparison of “Pure” Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease Plus Vascular Lesions (Mixed Dementia) in the Elderly

Abstract

It is widely accepted that senile dementia of the Alzheimer type and dementia due to vascular lesions are the two most common kinds of dementia in the elderly. However, the clinical criteria required to differentiate these two major progressive dementias are still unreliable (1, 2, 3). Furthermore, it has been shown (4, 5) that there were difficulties in classifying patients based on morphologic findings. Validation studies by Tierney et al (6) and Davous et al (7) demonstrated that depending on the neuropathological criteria applied, the same patients could be classified as Alzheimer’s disease or mixed dementia. In order to investigate further the concept of mixed dementia, we established a comparison of neurological, neuropsychological and pathological findings in 2 groups of patients prospectively studied and referred independently by the neuropathologist as “pure” Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Alzheimer’s disease plus vascular lesions or mixed dementia (MD).