Neuropsychological performance in patients with subcortical stroke Perfil neuropsicológico em pacientes com lesões vasculares subcorticais

Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) has superseded vascular dementia and multi-infarct dementia as the concept to be used in cognitive decline secondary to cerebrovascular disease1. The prevalence of dementia increases with age, and the prevalence of vascular dementia in epidemiological studies varies between 22 and 26.28%2,3. An epidemiologic study in Brazil showed a prevalence of 9.3% for vascular dementia (VaD) among demented participants aged 64 years and older4. Studies in tertiary outpatient clinics report a prevalence of vascular dementia between 24.9 and 32.25%5,6, and of 36.9% in a sample with presenile dementia7. VCI is a risk factor for the development of dementia. Wentzel8 observed that half of the subjects with vascular cognitive impairment with no dementia (VCIND) developed dementia over a five-year period. The current findings suggest that poor mental flexibility and verbal retrieval in the context of preserved function in other domains may characterize the prodromal stage of VaD9. Cognitive impairment with vascular disease often occurs in domains of selective or divided attention, executive function ( frontal lobe function) and processing speed10. Chui11 compared groups with dementia secondary to vascular disease presenting ischemic subcortical lesions (VADIS)