The Comparative Study of Memory Profile in Patients with Mild Stage of Alzheimer's Disease and Vascular Dementia

Abstract

Objectives: To study, compare, and identify the difference between memory profile of patients with mild stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and that of patients with mild stage of vascular dementia (VD). The profiles of these two groups are obtained from the Wechsler memory scale – third edition (WMS-III)

Methods: This study is a retrospective chart review of WMS-III score of patients (age > 60 years) in memory clinic at Ramathibodi Hospital, who have been diagnosed from conference of psychiatrist and radiologist between the year 2005-2013. They are classified into group of mild stage of dementia due to AD (n=40)  and vascular dementia (n=30). Their test results have been thereafter compared with that of normal control group (n=48) who have clinical and neuropsychological scores within normal range.

Results: The mean scores of all subtests, except face recognition test, of mild stage of AD group are the least compared with mild stage of VD and normal control. In particular, the mean scores of delayed recall total score subtest of logical memory and visual memory (family picture subtest) were significantly different among 3 groups (p<0.05).

Conclusions: This study finds in the AD group, the mean score of delayed recall in subtest of auditory and visual memory significantly is less than that of VD group and normal control. Therefore, the caring of patient with memory impairment, the priority should be given to delayed recall memory test in order to enhance the diagnosis of the disease in an early stage.