A Factor Analytic Approach to Symptom Patterns in Dementia

Table 4

A four-factor analysis of 30 clinical items scored in 190 patients with neuropathological diagnosis of VaD, AD, mixed AD/VaD and FTD. Factor loadings ≥0.25 are in bold. Factor loadings ≤−0.24 are set in italic.

	Factor 1	Factor 2	Factor 3	Factor 4
	Vascular	Frontal	Alz.type	Mood
History of stroke	0.71	−0.04	0.02	−0.03
Stepwise progression	0.67	0.03	−0.07	0.14
Focal neurological symptoms	0.74	0.20	0.00	0.01
Abrupt onset	0.75	0.02	−0.04	−0.04
Focal neurological signs	0.64	0.09	0.12	−0.17
Evidence of associated atherosclerosis	0.49	−0.12	0.04	0.00
History of hypertension	0.48	−0.06	0.06	−0.03
Fluctuating course	0.49	−0.22	−0.07	0.08
Depression	0.04	0.11	−0.11	0.72
Somatic complaints	0.01	−0.10	−0.05	0.55
Relative preservation of personality	0.04	−0.49	−0.13	0.21
Slow progression	−0.79	−0.13	0.11	−0.04
Echolalia, late mutism, amimia (during the course)	−0.11	0.58	−0.03	−0.04
Early signs of disinhibition	0.00	0.68	−0.14	−0.01
Early loss of insight	−0.18	0.42	0.16	−0.18
Progressive reduction of speech	0.01	0.44	0.04	0.25
Klüver-Bucy syndrome (hyperorality, hypersexuality, utilization behaviour)	0.13	0.48	0.06	0.16
Stereotypy of speech	−0.07	0.42	−0.10	−0.09
Logorrhea (voluble speech)	−0.02	0.30	0.10	−0.33
Irritability, dysphoria	0.00	0.22	0.31	0.40
Dyspraxia, dysphasia, dysgnosia (all symptoms present to some extent)	−0.23	−0.56	0.48	−0.17
Epileptic seizure of late onset	−0.00	0.03	0.62	0.11
Increased muscular tension	0.01	−0.09	0.59	0.10
Myoclonic twitchings	0.00	0.00	0.62	−0.19
Early spatial disorientation	−0.31	−0.71	0.28	−0.04
Early amnesia for remote events	−0.38	−0.65	0.29	−0.14
Confabulation, spontanteous	0.05	−0.03	0.34	−0.21
Logoclonia (stuttering-like speech disturbance)	−0.10	0.02	0.41	−0.04
Nocturnal confusion	0.02	−0.17	0.39	0.06
Emotional incontinence	0.12	0.05	0.39	0.42
Eigenvalue	5.2	3.7	1.9	1.6
Variance %	17.3	12.2	6.4	5.3