Clinical evaluation of the ICD-10 criteria for vascular dementia.

The clinical feasibility of the ICD-10 criteria for subtypes of vascular dementia were examined in an investigation of 61 demented patients (74.4, SD 8.2 years) showing CT appearances of vascular lesions. Only 15 cases (24.6%) fulfilled the ICD-10 criteria of vascular dementia. Of these cases, 66.6% could adequately be classified in subtypes. The most frequent types of vascular dementia were multi-infarct dementia and subcortical vascular dementia. Our findings suggest that the ICD-10 criteria of vascular dementia are more selective than the classical 'ischaemic scales'.