Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Sep;28(6):575-82.
doi: 10.1177/1533317513494448. Epub 2013 Jul 2.

Visual manifestations in Alzheimer's disease: a clinic-based study from India

Sandip Pal  1 , Debashis Sanyal, Atanu Biswas, Neelanjana Paul, Shyamal K Das
Affiliations

Visual manifestations in Alzheimer's disease: a clinic-based study from India

Sandip Pal et al. Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen. 2013 Sep.

Abstract

Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by amnesia, though non-memory-cognitive domains like visual are also affected. We planned to study frequency of visual dysfunctions in AD and their relationship with dementia severity.

Materials and methods: This study was conducted in the Cognitive clinic of Department of Neurology, Bangur Institute of Neurosciences, Kolkata, between January 2007 and December 2010. 55 patients of AD were evaluated by neurological and neuropsychological assessments and by special tests for visual dysfunctions.

Results: Common visual dysfunctions were visuo-constructional (87.3%), visuo-perceptual (63.6%), object agnosia(47.3%), prosopagnosia (45.5%), visual hallucination (27.3%) and simultanagnosia (12.7%). Symptoms of ventral visual pathway dysfunction were more common than that of dorsal pathway. MMSE score and number of visual manifestations had a good correlation.

Conclusions: Visual dysfunctions are common in AD, elicitation of which helps us to understand the cause of disability so that appropriate steps can be taken.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; MMSE; posterior cortical symptoms; visual manifestations.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Decision tree (exhaustive chi-square automatic interaction detection [CHAID]) analysis for predicting severity. The significant variables from Table 6 were used as predictors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Mendez MF, Tomsak RL, Relmer B. Disorders of the visual system in Alzheimer’s disease. J Clin Neuroophthalmol. 1990;10(1):62–69. - PubMed
    1. Benson DF, Davis RJ, Snyder BD. Posterior cortical atrophy. Arch Neurol. 1988;45(7):789–793. - PubMed
    1. Asensio-Sanchez VM, Torreblanca-Aguera B, Martinez-Calvo S, Calvo MJ, Rodriguez R. Visual symptoms as the first manifestation of Alzheimer's Disease. Arch Soc Esp Oftalmol. 2006;81(3):169–172. - PubMed
    1. Mendez MF, Ghajarania M, Perryman KM. Posterior cortical atrophy: clinical characteristics and differences compared to Alzheimer’s disease. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disorder. 2002;14(1):33–40. - PubMed
    1. Mendez MF, Mendez MA, Martin R, Smyth KA, Whitehouse PJ. Complex visual disturbances in Alzheimer’s disease. Neurology. 1990;40(3):439–443. - PubMed

MeSH terms