COGNITIVE PATTERN ACCORDING TO AGE

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Introduction: when comparing patients with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD) (before 65 years) and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD), there have been conflicting results. In general, EOAD patients have more difficulties in non-memory domains including language, visuospatial skills and executive functions. We tested the effect of age on cognitive patterns among our geriatric population of AD, with higher ages than in the literature. Method: prospective data collection on consecutive patients with mild AD (MMSE>20). Individualization of two groups: young patients (YP) ≤ 75 years, elderly patients (EP) ≥ 85 years. All patients underwent clinical examination, neuropsychological assessment, laboratory workup and brain imaging. Results: 22 YP and 52 EP (72.8 ± 2 and 87.6 ± 2 years) were included. Groups were comparable for socio educative level, ADL and IADL scores, geriatric depression scores, neuropsychiatric inventory scores and MMSE scores (24.1 ± 2 and 24.0 ± 2). We mainly observed that EP had poorer results for semantic fluencies (Isaac set test, animals) and recall of social events. There were no differences for phonetic fluencies and executive functioning. We also observed that EP were slower on the TMT A, had worse performance in abstract praxis and Rey figure copy. There was no significant difference in episodic memory. Conclusion: In patients with mild AD, cognitive patterns differ between patients younger than 75 years and those older than 85 years. The main finding is a more pronounced semantic impairment in older patients, in accordance with a previous literature report comparing EOAD (mean age 60.6 years) and LOAD (mean age 77.9 years).

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