Picture naming deficits in vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Picture naming deficits in Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been extensively studied but less is known about anomia in vascular dementia (VaD). We tested sources of anomia in these two dementia types by administering an extensive naming battery to 10 patients with VaD, 13 patients with probable AD, and 20 healthy age- and education-matched controls. Both dementia groups evidenced a semantic component in their anomia but the semantic deficit was more clearcut in the patients with AD than in the patients with VaD even though the groups were matched on dementia severity. Case-by-case analyses showed considerable performance variability but confirmed that when anomia is present, it commonly has a semantic component in both VaD and AD.