Diagnostic Criteria for Vascular Dementia

The term vascular dementia implies the presence of a clinical syndrome (dementia) caused by, or at least assumed to be caused by, a specific disorder (cerebrovascular disease). In this review, the various sets of criteria used to define vascular dementia are outlined. The various sets of criteria are judged whether they contain criteria for both dementia and vascular disease as well as for the relationship between the two. We conclude that only the criteria of the State of California Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnostic and Treatment Centers and of NINDS-AIREN provide sufficient operational criteria for dementia suitable for use in patients with vascular disease as well as for the diagnosis of cerebrovascular disease and for the establishment of a relationship between dementia and vascular disease. The latter criteria include also specific recommendations to the use of CT and MRI. However, the interpretation of the neuroimaging findings in the context of mixed vascular and degenerative dementia demands further study. Given the heterogeneous pathophysiology and pathology of vascular dementia and the modest reliability of the criteria, it seems plausible that the diagnosis of vascular dementia will become more reliable when specific diagnostic tests for the various degenerative diseases, from which vascular dementia has to be differentiated, become available.