Objective: To find out the prevalence of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) in an inpatient psychogeriatric population in Hong Kong Chinese.
Method: Clinical notes of all dementia patients admitted to an inpatient psychogeriatric unit between 1 January and 31 December 2000 were reviewed to retrieve information on various subtypes of dementia that have been diagnosed prospectively using NINCDS-ARDRA, NINDS-AIREN, CDLB and DSM-IV by qualified senior psychogeriatricians.
Result: There were only three cases of dementia with Lewy bodies out of 102 dementia inpatients, giving a prevalence rate of 2.9% over a two-year period.
Conclusion: The prevalence rate of dementia with Lewy bodies is remarkably lower than figures reported in western studies. Further evaluation using better sampling frame and better-validated diagnostic gold standard is required. Ethnically related biological factors may be implicated to explain the preliminary low prevalence rate in Chinese population.
Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.