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| Research article summary (published 29 Jun 2002): |
Do visuospatial and constructional disturbances differentiate frontal variant of frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease? an experimental study of a clinical belief.
Full Abstract
BACKGROUND:
In recent years several attempts have been made to distinguish frontotemporal dementia (FTD) from Alzheimer's disease (AD) on neuropsychological grounds; in particular, it has been suggested that FTD patients show spared spatial abilities with respect to AD patients.
OBJECTIVE:
We aimed at verifying whether patients with the frontal variant of frontotemporal dementia (fv-FTD) and AD patients perform differently on visuospatial and constructional tasks.
METHODS:
We assessed a wide range of visuospatial abilities and provided a qualitative analysis of constructional performances in 14 fv-FTD patients and 11 AD patients, matched for general cognitive abilities.
RESULTS:
The two groups of patients achieved similar scores on two copying tasks, presented similar drawing procedures in copying Rey complex figure and made a similar quantitative and qualitative pattern of errors in copying simple geometrical drawings. Moreover, no significant difference was found between fv-FTD and AD patients on a specific battery for visuospatial abilities.
CONCLUSIONS:
Our data and a review of the literature suggest that basic visuospatial and constructional skills cannot be taken as a reliable diagnostic criterion for distinguishing fv-FTD and AD at a mild to moderate disease stage and that the clinical belief of spared spatial abilities in fv-FTD has to be referred to the lack of topographic disorientation in comparison to AD.Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Author information
Author/s: Grossi, Dario (D); Fragassi, Nina Antonetta (NA); Chiacchio, Laura (L); Valoroso, Luigi (L); Tuccillo, Rosaria (R); Perrotta, Concetta (C); Rapone, Paola (P); Conchiglia, Giovanna (G); Trojano, Luigi (L);
Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Second University of Naples, Italy.
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Evaluation Studies; Journal Article
Journal: International journal of geriatric psychiatry (Int J Geriatr Psychiatry), published in England. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2002-Jul; vol 17 (issue 7) : pp 641-8
Dates: Created 2002/07/11; Completed 2002/08/21; Revised 2004/11/17;
PMID: 12112162, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
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