Peripheral vascular responses to acetylcholine as a predictive tool for response to cholinesterase inhibitors in Alzheimer’s disease

Table 2 Changes in clinical assessments and vascular responses (in perfusion units) to acetylcholine and sodium nitroprusside in all patients (n = 24), and the subsequent time course of decay in acetylcholine response to 50% of the peak value at baseline and following 6 months of treatment. Values are means ± SE

	Baseline	6 months
Clinical parameters
MMSE	24.0 ± 0.6	24.7 ± 0.6
NOSGER IADL/SB	37.8 ± 1.6	37.5 ± 1.7
NOSGER Total	118.9 ± 3.7	118.7 ± 3.3
DSST	21.4 ± 2.3	21.9 ± 2.1
Vascular responses
Basal perfusion (PU)	40 ± 11	47 ± 12
Peak acetylcholine response (PU)	334 ± 40	389 ± 31
Peak sodium nitroprusside response (PU)	274 ± 34	337 ± 33
Acetylcholine 50% decay (secs)	318 ± 41	321 ± 32

MMSE Mini Mental State Exam
NOSGER Nurses Observation Scale for Geriatric Patients IADL/SB combined score (max 50, higher scores are better)
NOSGER Total Nurses Observation Scale for Geriatric Patients Total Score (max 150, higher scores are better)
DSST Digit Symbol Substitution Test over 90 s

ISSN: 1471-2377