Cognitive profiles in dementia

Abstract

Dementia is characterized by a progressive deterioration of cognitive and functional abilities. While the most prevalent dementia is Alzheimer's disease, the wide spectrum of other forms of presentation such as vascular dementia, fronto-temporal dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies, among others, implies a great diagnostic challenge. This instance is highly complicated since dementia generally presents initially with a varied overlap of clinical and cognitive manifestations, as well as with a great heterogeneity in the findings in magnetic resonance imaging scans, which makes their precision difficult. The cognitive profiles of Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia, focal dementias such as primary progressive aphasias, Parkinson's disease dementia, and LATE, a late-onset dementia highly similar to AD, are described. Considering that complex studies such as biomarkers or neuroimaging are not always available, the objective of this paper is to provide a current overview of cognitive profiles of onset and progression that may be clinically useful and guide a possible differential diagnosis.