Table 2.
Demographic, clinical and cognitive data of patients with behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia and patients with Alzheimer’s disease at initial clinical presentation
| bvFTD (n = 26) | AD (n = 43) | bvFTD vs. AD | Classification as bvFTD vs. AD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean (SD) | Mean (SD) | t(df) | ||
| Demographics | ||||
| Age, years | 65 (8) | 72 (9) | 3.44 (67)a | |
| Education, years | 11 (1.7) | 11 (1.8) | −0.98 (67) | |
| Sex, M/F | 21/5 | 17/26 | N/A | |
| Disease severity scores | ||||
| MMSE | 26 (3) | 24 (3) | −2.48 (67)b | |
| FBI | 28 (10) | N/A | N/A | |
| Disease duration, months | 29 (19) | 23 (14) | −1.40 (67) | |
| Total amyloid-β | 850 (424) | 397 (108) | −4.16 (61)a | |
| Total tau protein | 403 (256) | 756 (277) | 4.07 (61)a | |
| Neuropsychological assessment | ||||
| Memory | ||||
| Verbal span | −0.77 (0.98) | −1.47 (0.99) | −2.88 (67)b | |
| Verbal learning | −1.54 (1.32) | −2.36 (1.11) | −2.77 (67)b | |
| Verbal recall | −1.74 (1.25) | −2.98 (0.77) | −5.1 (67)a | 0.613 |
| Verbal recognition | −0.77 (1.74) | −4.14 (5.25) | −3.88 (67)a | |
| Visual recall | −0.74 (0.95) | −1.34 (0.90) | −2.62 (67)b | |
| Language | ||||
| Object naming | −0.16 (0.94) | −1.06 (1.55) | −2.99 (67)b | |
| Visuospatial skills | ||||
| Figure copy | 0.16 (1.05) | −1.05 (1.85) | −3.48 (67)a | 0.300 |
| Executive functions | ||||
| Semantic word fluency | −1.11 (0.98) | −1.21 (1.05) | −0.43 (67) | |
| Phonematic word fluency | −1.13 (0.88) | −0.58 (1.14) | 2.08 (67) | |
| Set shifting | −1.50 (1.90) | −3.18 (2.15) | −3.18 (67)a | |
| Digit span backwards | −1.29 (1.39) | −1.71 (1.23) | −1.26 (67) | |
| Attention | ||||
| Processing speed | −0.90 (2.31) | −3.48 (3.73) | −3.41 (67)a | |
| Praxis | ||||
| Pantomime of object use | −2.51 (2.04) | −5.21 (5.90) | −2.17 (67)b | |
| Imitation of limb postures | −2.80 (3.41) | −5.39 (4.61) | −2.45 (67)b | 0.299 |
| Imitation of face postures | −4.88 (4.04) | −2.00 (2.50) | 3.33 (67)a | −0.512 |
| Social cognition | ||||
| Facial emotion recognition | −2.35 (2.41) | −1.96 (2.10) | 0.58 (67) | |
Abbreviations: AD Alzheimer’s disease, bvFTD Behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia, FBI Frontal Behavioral Inventory, MMSE Mini Mental State Examination, N/A Not applicable
Column 1 displays all demographic and clinical categories, cognitive domains and respective standardised subdomains. Columns 2 and 3 display group means and SDs of demographic and clinical categories and of the z-transformed cognitive subdomain scores (refer to Table 1). Column 4 displays the test statistical values resulting from group comparison analysis (Student’s t test). Column 5 displays the standardised canonical discriminant function coefficients resulting from discriminant function analysis. Higher values indicate major importance for successful group classification
aSignificant difference at p < 0.003 (Bonferroni correction for number of cognitive tests)
bSignificant difference at p < 0.05