Detection of early Alzheimer's disease in MCI patients by the combination of MMSE and an episodic memory test

• Published in: BMC neurology Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 78
• Main Authors: Pozueta, Ana, Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Eloy, Vazquez-Higuera, José Luis, Mateo, Ignacio, Sánchez-Juan, Pascual, González-Perez, Soraya, Berciano, José, Combarros, Onofre
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central 24.06.2011; BioMed Central Ltd; BMC
• Subjects: Aged; Alzheimer Disease - diagnosis; Alzheimer Disease - psychology; Alzheimer's disease; Care and treatment; Cognition Disorders - diagnosis; Cognition Disorders - psychology; Dementia; Dementias; Development and progression; Diagnosis; Disease Progression; Early Diagnosis; Episodic memory; Female; Humans; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Neurochemistry; Neurology; Neuropsychological Tests; Neurosurgery; Research Article; Risk factors; Spain; Lewy Body Dementia; Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment; Mild Cognitive Impairment; Mild Cognitive Impairment Patient; Dementia
• ISSN: 1471-2377; 1471-2377
• DOI: 10.1186/1471-2377-11-78

Background Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a heterogeneous clinical entity that comprises the prodromal phase of Alzheimer's disease (Pr-AD). New biomarkers are useful in detecting Pr-AD, but they are not universally available. We aimed to investigate baseline clinical and neuropsychological variables that might predict progression from MCI to AD dementia. Methods All patients underwent a complete clinical and neuropsychological evaluation at baseline and every 6 months during a two-year follow-up period, with 54 out of 109 MCI patients progressing to dementia (50 of them progressed to AD dementia), and 55 remaining as stable MCI (S-MCI). Results A combination of MMSE and California Verbal Learning Test Long Delayed Total Recall (CVLT-LDTR) constituted the best predictive model: subjects scoring above 26/30 on MMSE and 4/16 on CVLT-LDTR had a negative predictive value of 93.93% at 2 years, whereas those subjects scoring below both of these cut-off scores had a positive predictive value of 80.95%. Conclusions Pr-AD might be distinguished from S-MCI at baseline using the combination of MMSE and CVLT-LDTR. These two neuropsychological predictors are relatively brief and may be readily completed in non-specialist clinical settings.