Cerebral blood flow in severity-matched Alzheimer and multi-infarct patients.

Cerebral blood flow was studied in patients meeting research criteria for either Alzheimer's disease or multi-infarct dementia, matched for age and severity of dementia. In both groups, mean flow was less than in age-matched normal controls, but the Alzheimer patients also had significantly lower mean flow than the multi-infarct group. This result helps resolve discrepancies found in studies with inadequate control for severity. Either global flow or regional left parietal flow could be used to discriminate between these dementia categories with 87% accuracy.