Memory Disorder Of Patients With Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, And Cerebral Infarction

Objectives: There were four primary purposes in this study: (1) to explore the memory disorder of patients with Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and cerebral infarction, (2) to provide evidences for diagnosis, discrimination, and assessment of treatment efficacy through examining the different mnemonic characteristics of these three diseases, (3) to demonstrate the multi-memory systems theory according the discoveries of this study, (4) to test empirical validity of Multiple Memory Assessment Scale (MMAS).Methods: 30 patients with idiopathic PD, 30 patients with AD, and 30 patients with CI were examined using 12 subtests out of MMAS- word-stem completion, picture recognition, degraded picture naming, Chinese word matching, picture-symbol matching, digit span, spatial span, word recognition, word recall, picture reproduction, orientation, and information and current affairs. Three matched control groups were selected from norm sample.Results: 1. The performances of patients with PD were significantly worse on picture recognition, digit span, word recall, picture reproduction, orientation, memory span, recognition, free recall, everyday memory, explicit memory and retrieval index than those of normal controls. Compared with normal controls, the performances of mild PD patients only worse on free recall and its subtest, picture reproduction; except word-stem completion, degraded picture naming, Chinese word matching, learning slope, and retrieval index, the other performances of moderate-severe PD patients were worse. There were no significant differences between mild and moderate-severe PD patients on memory performances after education level was controlled. The PD patients performed more badly on picture reproduction, word recall and picture recognition than other subtests. 2. Almost all the performances of patients with AD were significantly worse than those of normal controls. Compared with normal controls, mild AD patients performed badly on orientation and all explicit memory tests; moderate-severe AD patients performed badly on all explicit memory, implicit memory, and everyday memory tests. With education level being controlled, the performances of moderate-severe AD patients were significantly worse on word-stem completion, degraded picture naming, orientation, information and current affairs, free recall, implicit memory, everyday memory than those of mild AD patients. Among all memory tests, AD patients performed more badly on explicit memory subtests. AD patients performed morebadly on word-stem completion than on degraded picture naming in implicit memory tests, and on orientation than on information and current affairs in everyday memory tests. (3) The performances of patients with CI were significantly worse on word-stem completion, picture recognition, word recall, picture reproduction, orientation, information and current affairs, free recall, explicit memory, implicit memory, everyday memory, and retrieval index than those of normal controls. Compared with normal controls, left CI patients performed more badly on word-stem completion, word recall, picture reproduction, orientation, information and current affairs, free recall, implicit memory, everyday memory, and retrieval index; right CI patients performed more badly on word-stem completion, picture recognition, degraded picture naming, word recall, picture reproduction, orientation, information and current affairs free recall, explicit memory, implicit memory, everyday memory, and retrieval index. Among all memory tests, CI patients performed more badly on picture reproduction, word recall, picture recognition, and word-stem completion. (4) With education level being controlled, except word-stem completion, degraded picture naming, digit span, spatial span, word recall, information and current affairs, memory span implicit memory and retrieval index, there were significant differences on the other memory performances of three patients group. (5) The memory performances of PD patients were negatively correlated with YESS, an...