Comparative Study of Cube Copying Ability between Alzheimer's Dementia and Vascular Dementia
Keywords:
Alzheimer's dementia, Vascular dementia, Cube copying taskAbstract
Objectives: To study the differences in cube copying ability between dementia patients and normal elderly and between Alzheimer's dementia patients (AD) and vascular dementia patients (VD). We also examined factors that affect cub copying ability.
Methods: 36 ADs and 26 VDs were enrolled from memory clinic of Ramathibodi hospital. All samples were diagnosed by psychiatrists and radiologists in memory conference. Control populations were 40 normal elderly. Cube copying was collected from OPD cards and scoring was made using Maeshima's method. The average scores among each group were compared. Factors that affected cube copying ability were also assessed.
Results: Average cube copying scores in dementia patients (AD + VD, 14.60 5.22) differed significantly from normal elderly (18.75
2.99, P = 0.000). Average cube copying scores in AD comparing with VD showed no difference. Educational factor affected cube copying ability significantly (P = 0.000), as level of education increased, the cube copying score increased. For subjects that graduated from diploma degree and above, average cube copying score in AD was 15.71
4.46 which differed from VD (19.30
1.16, P = 0.004) and normal elderly significantly (19.33
2.16, P = 0.000). Whereas average cube copying score in VD compared with normal elderly showed no difference.
Conclusion: The dementia patients show impairment of cube copying ability when compare with normal elderly. High educated VD can compensate this impairment but not for high educaed AD.
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