The neuropsychological profile in dementia with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVE

To demonstrate the exact nature of the cognitive profile of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) on standardized neuropsychological tests including the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale--Revised (WAIS-R) and the Wechsler Memory Scale--Revised (WMS-R).

DESIGN

We examined the WAIS-R and the WMS-R of 26 patients with probable DLB (based on the Consensus Criteria for the clinical diagnosis of DLB) and of 78 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) (based on criteria of the National Institute for Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke-Alzheimer's disease and Related Disorders Association) who were matched to the patients with DLB 3:1 by Mini-Mental State Examination score.

RESULTS

The DLB group scored significantly lower on the Block Design, Object Assembly and Digit Symbol of WAIS-R and significantly higher on the Logical Memory I, Verbal Paired Associates I, Logical Memory II, Visual Paired Associates II, Verbal Paired Associates II and Visual Reproduction II of WMS-R (p < 0.0016 to p < 0.0001). In a comparison between the DLB group and the AD group, a logistic regression analysis revealed that the weighted sum score of the Object Assembly and the Logical Memory II may differentiate DLB from AD with a sensitivity of 0.81 [95% Confidence Intervals (CI) = 0.66-0.96] and a specificity of 0.76 (95% CI = 0.66-0.85).

CONCLUSIONS

The WAIS-R and the WMS-R can help to differentiate DLB from AD.