How is vascular dementia different than other types of dementia?

Vascular dementia: Vascular dementia may overlap with other types of dementia such as alzheimer's, but results from damage to, or blockages in, blood vessels that nourish the brain. This leads to tiny "infarcts" or deaths of nerve cells in the brain. People with hypertension and/or arteriosclerotic narrowing of these blood vessels are vulnerable to such changes, which happen in a stair-step process over time.

Vascular dementia: Is caused by underlying blood vessel (vascular) problems in the brain. And the course of the illness is a stepwise progression rather than a slowly progressive one.