Australian-led team reveals new, globally recognised criteria for vascular dementia diagnosis
Australian researchers have released new internationally recognised diagnostic criteria for vascular dementia, a condition they are now calling vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID).
Their JAMA Neurology paper outlines the development of the VasCog-2-WSO criteria for mild cognitive impairment and dementia linked to vascular issues — the second most common cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease.
The authors from UNSW Sydney’s Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing propose two main criteria to determine the aetiology for patients with mild cognitive impairment.
The first is whether the patient has had a stroke or TIA leading to cognitive deficits persisting beyond three months. If there is no history of stroke or TIA, this criterion is met if there is evidence for decline from subcortical ischaemic pathology, such as reduction in attention and processing speed, and/or executive function.
