General measures of cognition

Abstract

A general cognitive performance battery is needed as a primary outcome in vascular dementia clinical trials. Because there is considerable overlap between vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the pattern of cognitive impairment, a reasonable approach to developing an optimal vascular dementia battery is to begin with a widely used AD measure and improve its sensitivity to the cognitive domains that are more prominent in vascular dementia. Thus the VaDAS-cog has evolved, which comprises the ADAS-cog with additional frontal lobe subtests covering attention, working memory, executive function, and verbal fluency. Validation of this new cognitive instrument will be supported by its successful use in vascular dementia clinical trials.