J Clin Neurol.  2011 Mar;7(1):19-24. 10.3988/jcn.2011.7.1.19.

Dementia with Lewy Bodies versus Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease Dementia: A Comparison of Cognitive Profiles

• Park KW
• Kim HS
• Cheon SM
• Cha JK
• Kim SH
• Kim JW

• KMID: 1452568
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3988/jcn.2011.7.1.19

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
It is particularly difficult to differentiate dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) from the related dementias of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD). Few studies have been designed to comparatively analyze detailed neuropsychological assessments of DLB patients and patients with AD and PDD.
METHODS
Three groups of patients participated in this study: 10 with DLB, 76 with AD, and 17 with PDD, who had been diagnosed as probable DLB, AD, and PDD, respectively, according to the clinical criteria of the consortium on DLB, National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Diseases and Stroke/Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorder Association, and the clinical diagnostic criteria for PDD. All patients were evaluated by careful neurological examination with detailed neuropsychological testing.
RESULTS
Significant differences among the three groups were found for attention, memory, and executive function, which included tasks of backward digit span, three-word recall, verbal delayed recall, and the Stroop test. Post hoc analysis revealed that the deficiencies of attention on the digit span task were greater in the DLB group than in the AD and PDD groups. The scores for episodic verbal memory tasks were significantly lower in the DLB and AD groups than in the PDD group. The performance in frontal executive function, as indicated by the Stroop test, was significantly worse in the DLB and PDD groups than in the AD group.
CONCLUSIONS
The results of the present study show that the pattern of cognitive dysfunction, in terms of attention, episodic memory, and executive functions, differ between patients with DLB and patients with AD and PDD.

Keyword

dementia with lewy bodies; Alzheimer's disease; Parkinson's disease dementia; cognition; neuropsychology

MeSH Terms

Alzheimer Disease
Cognition
Dementia
Executive Function
Humans
Lewy Bodies
Memory
Memory, Episodic
Neurologic Examination
Neuropsychology
Parkinson Disease
Stroop Test

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Neuropsychological comparison of the attention domain in the three patient groups. Values are mean and SE values; bars with different superscripts differ from each other within a specific category (p<0.05). Means with the same letter in their superscripts do not differ significantly from one another according to a Tukey-Kramer test with a 0.05 limit on the familywise error rate. AD: Alzheimer's disease, DLB: dementia with lewy bodies, PDD: Parkinson's disease dementia.

• 

  Fig. 2 Neuropsychological comparison of the verbal memory domain in the three patient groups. Data are mean and SE values; bars with different superscripts differ from each other within a specific category (p<0.05). Means with the same letter in their superscripts do not differ significantly from one another according to a Tukey-Kramer test with a 0.05 limit on the familywise error rate. AD: Alzheimer's disease, DLB: dementia with lewy bodies, PDD: Parkinson's disease dementia.

• 

  Fig. 3 Neuropsychological comparison of executive function domain in the three patient groups. Data are mean and SE values; bars with different superscripts differ from each other within a specific category (p<0.05). Means with the same letter in their superscripts do not differ significantly from one another according to a Tukey-Kramer test with a 0.05 limit on the familywise error rate. AD: Alzheimer's disease, DLB: dementia with lewy bodies, PDD: Parkinson's disease dementia.

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