[Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) are the two major forms of dementia in the elderly, and they had been separated categorically on the basis of pathogenetic mechanisms and clinical operationalized criteria. However, it was claimed that this strict separation might steered toward the overdiagnosis of vascular dementia, this dichotomy has been reevaluated in the light of recent epidemiological and neuropathological knowledge. Cerebrovascular disease (CVD) is now considered as one of the vascular risk factors to the onset and evolution of Alzheimer's disease. Futhermore, the term "AD with CVD" has been used to classify patients fulfilling the clinical criteria for possible AD and who also present clinical or brain imaging evidence of relevant CVD.