BACKGROUND/AIMS: We investigated the clinical and cognitive features of patients with mild general paresis of the insane (GPI) in comparison to Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, mild frontotemporal dementia (FTD) patients and normal elderly individuals. METHODS: Twelve patients with mild GPI, 24 patients with mild AD, 11 patients with mild FTD and 36 healthy subjects participated in the current study. A comprehensive neuropsychological battery was used to assess memory, language, attention, executive function, visuospatial ability, etc. In addition, cranial MRI were also obtained from the 3 patient groups. RESULTS: Mild GPI showed a similar pattern of cognitive impairments in memory, language and executive function to mild AD, but a mixed pattern of dissimilarities to mild FTD. Mild GPI patients had more complaints and positive signs in the nervous system than mild AD patients, and cranial MRI results showed that mild GPI patients usually had atrophy of the medial temporal lobe. CONCLUSION: There is an overall decline in cognitive functions of mild GPI patients, which is comparable to that in AD patients, suggesting that there is a wide range of structural changes in the brains of mild GPI patients as well. However, further studies are needed to verify whether these structural changes are similar to those in AD.
BACKGROUND/AIMS: We investigated the clinical and cognitive features of patients with mild general paresis of the insane (GPI) in comparison to Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, mild frontotemporal dementia (FTD) patients and normal elderly individuals. METHODS: Twelve patients with mild GPI, 24 patients with mild AD, 11 patients with mild FTD and 36 healthy subjects participated in the current study. A comprehensive neuropsychological battery was used to assess memory, language, attention, executive function, visuospatial ability, etc. In addition, cranial MRI were also obtained from the 3 patient groups. RESULTS: Mild GPI showed a similar pattern of cognitive impairments in memory, language and executive function to mild AD, but a mixed pattern of dissimilarities to mild FTD. Mild GPIpatients had more complaints and positive signs in the nervous system than mild ADpatients, and cranial MRI results showed that mild GPIpatients usually had atrophy of the medial temporal lobe. CONCLUSION: There is an overall decline in cognitive functions of mild GPIpatients, which is comparable to that in ADpatients, suggesting that there is a wide range of structural changes in the brains of mild GPIpatients as well. However, further studies are needed to verify whether these structural changes are similar to those in AD.
Authors: Shibin Wang; Wenming Gu; Yuping Cao; Hangxiao Zheng; Lei Zhang; Xiaoyun Guo; Wenzhong Chen; Xingguang Luo Journal: World J Psychiatry Ment Health Res Date: 2021-11-30