Vascular dementia (VaD) has been considered to be more prevalent than Alzheimer disease in Japan. However, this might be the result of overdiagnosis stemming from some problematic diagnosis of VaD or of the frequent use of magnetic resonance imaging to detect cerebrovascular disease in older adults.
Division of Neuropsychology, Department of Disability Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1, Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8575, Japan. meg@mail.cc.tohoku.ac.jp