Olfactory dysfunction in dementia of Alzheimer's type and vascular dementia |
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Authors: | Naoyasu MOTOMURA Yoji TOMOTA |
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Affiliation: | National Mental Support Center for School Crisis, Osaka Kyoiku University, Osaka and;Department of Neurology, Hyogo Rehabilitation Center, Kobe, Japan |
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Abstract: | Background: Olfactory function in vascular dementia has not been extensively investigated to date. We studied olfactory function in vascular dementia (VD) and dementia of Alzheimer's type (DAT). Methods: We studied olfactory functioning in 12 patients suffering from dementia of Alzheimer's type, 11 patients with vascular dementia and 30 normal subjects. For these subjects we examined a 12‐item version of the Pennsylvania smell identification test and mini‐mental state examinations. These three groups were matched for age, sex and educational level. Results: Although the dementia scores were comparable in the DAT and VD groups, the smell identifications were low in DAT patients compared with VD patients and normal control subjects. Conclusions: These results suggest that the smell identification test may be useful in differential diagnosis between DAT and VD patients |
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Keywords: | dementia of Alzheimer's type olfaction vascular dementia |
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