CORRELATION BETWEEN NEUROPSYCHOMETRIC TESTS AND SEMIQUANTITATIVE EVALUATION OF THE REGIONAL CEREBRAL BLOOD-FLOW (RCBF) IN A GROUP OF OUTPATIENTS AFFECTED BY COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT

In order to evaluate the correlation between the cognitive-behavioral performances and the regional blood-perfusion deficits of the brain, 1 8 elderly subjects affected by dementia of probably primary degenerati ve character have been studied. The patients were first examined by ps ychometric tests and then submit ted to brain Single Photon Emission C omputed Tomography (SPECT) using m)Technetium]-d,l-hexamethyl-propylen e-amine-oxine (Tc-HMPAO) for regional blood flow evaluation (rCBF). Th e cognitive-behavioral functions have been estimated by Mini Mental St ate Examination (MMSE), Randt Memory Test, Rey's 15 Words, Corsi's Blo ck Tapping Test, Word Fluency Test, Sentence Construction, Sketch Copy , Toulouse-Pieron's test, Digit Symbol Test from Wechsler Adult Intell igence Scale, and the Progressive Matrices 1947 (PM 47). The cerebral blood flow reduction in left occipital lobe and left frontal lobe expl ained 67 % of the visuo-verbal memory impairment of the patients. Thes e results suggest that the decrease of cognitive functions is related to some extent to a lower cerebral blood perfusion.