Transcranial Doppler sonography in dementia of Alzheimer type.

The intention of this study was to examine the relation of clinical variables and cognitive dysfunction to cerebrovascular blood flow in a sample of patients with Alzheimer''s disease without any sign or symptom of cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease. The patients met DSM-III-R criteria for dementia of Alzheimer type. Blood flow velocities in the anterior, middle (MCA) and posterior cerebral arteries were recorded using transcranial Doppler sonography. Several psychometric tests including the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were performed. The patients’ age correlated significantly with the systolic flow velocity in the left MCA (r = –0.57) explaining 24% of the total variance; t…