Comparability of the clinical diagnostic criteria for vascular dementia: a critical review. Part I.

This review is the first of a two-part series focusing on the comparability of eight clinical criteria used for the diagnosis of vascular dementia: the Hachinski Ischemic Scale; the Ischemic Scale of Rosen; the criteria proposed by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder-Third Edition (DSM-III), DSM-III-R, DSM-IV; International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10); State of California Alzheimer's Disease Diagnostic and Treatment Centers (ADDTC); and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke-Association Internationale pour la Recherche et l'Enseignement en Neurosciences (NINDS-AIREN). The authors discuss the critical issues related to the definition of the cognitive syndromes as well as the vascular causes and associated heterogeneity of symptomatology across these criteria.