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Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Using Retinal Imaging to Study Dementia
Published on: November 6, 2017
Impaired abstract thinking may discriminate between normal aging and vascular mild cognitive impairment
Felipe Kenji Sudo1, Gilberto Sousa Alves, Carlos Eduardo de Oliveira Alves
1Psychiatry Institute, Federal University Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. fksudo@yahoo.com
Objective:
Cerebrovascular disease (CVD) is associated with cognitive deficits. This cross-sectional study examines differences among healthy elderly controls and patients with vascular mild cognitive impairment (VaMCI) and vascular dementia (VaD) in performances on CAMCOG subscales.
Method:
Elderly individuals (n=61) were divided into 3 groups, according to cognitive and neuroimaging status: 16 controls, 20 VaMCI and 25 VaD. VaMCI and VaD individuals scored over 4 points on the Hachinski Ischemic Scale.
Results:
Significant differences in total CAMCOG scores were observed across the three groups (p<0.001). VaD subjects performed worse than those with VaMCI in most CAMCOG subscales (p<0.001). All subscales showed differences between controls and VaD (p<0.001). Performance on abstract thinking showed difference between VaMCI and controls (p<0.001).
Conclusion:
CAMCOG discriminated controls from VaMCI and VaD. Assessment of abstract thinking may be useful as a screening item for diagnosis of VaMCI.
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