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Neuropsychological tests as discriminators between dementia of alzheimer type and frontotemporal dementia
Author(s) -
Elfgren Christina,
Brun Arne,
Gustafson Lars,
Johanson Aki,
Minthon Lennart,
Passant Ulla,
Risberg Jarl
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.930090807
Subject(s) - frontotemporal dementia , dementia , neuropsychology , psychology , context (archaeology) , neuropsychological test , discriminant function analysis , medical diagnosis , alzheimer's disease , cognition , linear discriminant analysis , psychiatry , cognitive disorder , audiology , clinical psychology , medicine , disease , cognitive impairment , pathology , statistics , mathematics , computer science , biology , paleontology , machine learning
The aim of this study was to examine whether cognitive test performance alone could distinguish patients with dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT) from those with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Scores from three neuropsychological tests were used as discriminating variables in 28 cases with postmortem verified diagnoses. The selected tests measured verbal ability, visuospatial ability and verbal memory. Eighty‐nine per cent of the sample was correctly classified by discriminant analysis. Evaluating the ability of the obtained discriminant function to differentiate between groups of DAT and FTD in a new, clinically diagnosed sample of 38 cases yielded an overall success rate of 84%. The results suggest that cognitive tests may be helpful for differential diagnosis in the context of a neuropsychiatric examination.