Faster cognitive and functional decline in Dysexecutive versus amnestic Alzheimer's subgroups: a longitudinal analysis of the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) database.

Abstract

ObjectiveTo compare the rate of cognitive and functional decline in dysexecutive, typical and amnestic subgroups of Alzheimer's disease.Methods943 participants from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) database who had a diagnosis of probable AD were followed for a mean of 2.3 years. A dysexecutive subgroup (n = 165) was defined as having executive performance >1.5 SD worse than memory performance, an amnestic subgroup (n = 157) was defined as having memory performance >1.5 SD worse than executive performance and a typical subgroup (n = 621) was defined as having a difference in executive and memory performance of ResultsCompared with the amnestic subgroup, the dysexecutive subgroup declined 2.2X faster on the Folstein MMSE (pConclusionsA dysexecutive subgroup of AD has a unique disease course in addition to cognitive phenotype.