Medical disorders in Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.

The clinical and postmortem findings of 29 patients with Alzheimer's disease were evaluated and compared to the findings of 19 patients with vascular dementia. The patients with Alzheimer's disease had received treatment for an average of 2.0 internal medical disorders, the patients with vascular dementia for 2.1 disorders. The average number of medical diseases found at postmortem was 3.7 in the group with Alzheimer's dementia and 4.1 in vascular dementia. Apart from a marginally increased rate of peripheral occlusive artery disease in vascular dementia, the proportions of the most common disorders of the cardiovascular, genitourinary, gastrointestinal and endocrinological disorders and the most common causes of death did not differ significantly between these groups. Therefore patients with Alzheimer's disease should receive the same internal medical attention as patients with vascular dementia.