Nagata Ken, Saito Hirohiko, Ueno Tomoyuki, Sato Mika, Nakase Taizen, Maeda Tetsuya, Satoh Yuichi, Komatsu Hiromi, Suzuki Miyuki, Kondoh Yasushi
Department of Neurology, Research Institute for Brain and Blood Vessels, 6-10 Sesnshu-Kubota-Machi Akita 010-0874, Japan.
J Neurol Sci. 2007 Jun 15;257(1-2):44-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2007.01.049. Epub 2007 Apr 19.
Vascular dementia (VaD) is a heterogeneous clinical entity based on various vascular pathophysiological processes underlying the subtypes of cerebrovascular disease (CVD). Several diagnostic criteria are currently being used for the clinical diagnosis of VaD, but they are mostly more than 10 years old and need to be renovated including the use of functional brain imaging methods such as single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT). There is a limitation in the diagnosis based on the strict dichotomy between AD and VaD, and the concept of "AD with CVD" or "mixed dementia" should be included in the clinical diagnosis of VaD.
