Performance on the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale in patients with vascular dementia: Relationships to neuroimaging findings

Impairment on screening measures such as the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale ( MDRS) provides evidence of dementia in patients with cerebrovascular diseas e. However, the relationships between neuroimaging findings and performance on the MDRS in vascular dementia (VD) have not been determined. In the pre sent study, we examined the relationships between subcortical hyperintensit y (SH) volume and whole brain volume (WBV) on the subscales and total score of the MDRS. Results revealed that SH accounted for a significant amount o f variance on the Initiation/Perseveration and Construction subscales, wher eas WBV accounted for a significant amount of variance on the Memory subsca le. The total score on the MDRS was found to be significantly related to WB V but not SH. These results suggest that subcortical damage and brain volum e account for different aspects of cognitive decline in VD and that overall cognitive impairment may reflect cortical and subcortical involvement.