Background: Our aim was to evaluate and compare the diagnostic properties of 5 screening tests for the diagnosis of mild Alzheimer disease (AD). Methods: We conducted a prospective and cross-sectional study of 92 patients with mild AD and of 68 healthy controls from our Department of Neurology. The diagnostic properties of the following tests were compared: Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination III (ACE-III), Memory Impairment Screen (MIS), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS). Results: All tests yielded high diagnostic accuracy, with the ACE-III achieving the best diagnostic properties. The area under the curve was 0.897 for the ACE-III, 0.889 for the RUDAS, 0.874 for the MMSE, 0.866 for the MIS, and 0.856 for the MoCA. The Mini-ACE score from the ACE-III showed the highest diagnostic capacity (area under the curve 0.939). Memory scores of the ACE-III and of the RUDAS showed a better diagnostic accuracy than those of the MMSE and of the MoCA. All tests, especially the ACE-III, conveyed a higher diagnostic accuracy in patients with full primary education than in the less educated group. Implementing normative data improved the diagnostic accuracy of the ACE-III but not that of the other tests. Conclusions: The ACE-III achieved the highest diagnostic accuracy. This better discrimination was more evident in the more educated group.

Our results suggest that ACE-III is a useful neuropsychological test for assessing the cognitive domains of attention, language, memory, and visuospatial function. It also enables detection of Alzheimer's disease in early stages.

PURPOSE Radiation dose received by the neural stem cells of the hippocampus during whole-brain radiotherapy has been associated with neurocognitive decline. The key concern using hippocampal avoidance-prophylactic cranial irradiation (HA-PCI) in patients with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is the incidence of brain metastasis within the hippocampal avoidance zone. METHODS This phase III trial enrolled 150 patients with SCLC (71.3% with limited disease) to standard prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI; 25 Gy in 10 fractions) or HA-PCI. The primary objective was the delayed free recall (DFR) on the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT) at 3 months; a decrease of 3 points or greater from baseline was considered a decline. Secondary end points included other FCSRT scores, quality of life (QoL), evaluation of the incidence and location of brain metastases, and overall survival (OS). Data were recorded at baseline, and 3, 6, 12, and 24 months after PCI. RESULTS Participants' baseline characteristics were well balanced between the two groups. The median follow-up time for living patients was 40.4 months. Decline on DFR from baseline to 3 months was lower in the HA-PCI arm (5.8%) compared with the PCI arm (23.5%; odds ratio, 5; 95% CI, 1.57 to 15.86; P = .003). Analysis of all FCSRT scores showed a decline on the total recall (TR; 8.7% v 20.6%) at 3 months; DFR (11.1% v 33.3%), TR (20.3% v 38.9%), and total free recall (14.8% v 31.5%) at 6 months, and TR (14.2% v 47.6%) at 24 months. The incidence of brain metastases, OS, and QoL were not significantly different. CONCLUSION Sparing the hippocampus during PCI better preserves cognitive function in patients with SCLC. No differences were observed with regard to brain failure, OS, and QoL compared with standard PCI.

The norms obtained will be extremely useful in the clinical evaluation of young Spanish adults.

The data obtained will be useful in the clinical evaluation of young Spanish adults.

Background: The Loewenstein-Acevedo Scale for Semantic Interference and Learning (LASSI-L) is a novel cognitive test that measures recovery from proactive semantic interference, which may be an early cognitive marker of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Objective: To generate normative data for a Spaniard population and to validate the LASSI-L for the diagnosis of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and mild AD. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study in which 97 healthy participants, 34 with aMCI, and 33 with mild AD were studied with LASSI-L and a comprehensive neuropsychological protocol. The overlapping strategy analysis was used to maximize the sample size and to provide age- and education-adjusted normative data using a logistic regression analysis. Results: Internal consistency was 0.932. Convergent validity with the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test was moderate. LASSI-L raw scores were correlated with age and years of education, but not gender. The area under the curve for discriminating between healthy controls and aMCI was 0.909, and between healthy controls and mild AD was 0.986. LASSI-L sub-scores representing maximum storage capacity, recovery from proactive interference, and delayed recall yielded the highest diagnostic accuracy. Conclusions: The LASSI-L is a reliable and valid test for the diagnosis of aMCI and mild AD. The age and education influences on the performance of the test and normative data are provided. LASSI-L merits further studies to evaluate its ability to detect preclinical AD and predict progression to aMCI and early dementia.

Background: Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination III (ACE-III) is a cognitive test that has been validated for the diagnosis of cognitive disorders. The aim of this study was to provide normative data for the ACE-III for age, education and gender. Methods: The Spanish version of the ACE-III was administered to a group of 273 healthy subjects in a multicenter study in Spain. Correlation and determination coefficients for age, education and gender were estimated. The overlapping interval strategy and linear regression analyses were used to provide adjusted norms for demographic factors and to explore the potential influence of these factors in the performance of the test. Results: Age and education correlated significantly with the total score and with all the domains. Gender correlated only with the domains of attention and visuospatial skills. Norms for the total score and for cognitive domains (attention, memory, fluency, language, and visuospatial skills) are provided. Conclusion: This study confirms the influence of demographic factors (especially age and education) on the performance in the ACE-III and provides normative data for the Spanish version of the ACE-III.

Introduction: Lexical fluency tests are frequently used in clinical practice to assess language and executive function.Objective: As part of the Spanish normative studies project in young adults (NEURONORMA young adults), we provide age-and education-adjusted normative data for 3 semantic fluency tasks (animals, fruits and vegetables, and kitchen tools), three formal lexical fluency tasks (words beginning with P, M and R), three excluded-letter fluency tasks (words excluding A, E and S) and a verb fluency task. Material and methods:The sample consisted of 179 participants who are cognitively normal and range in age from 18 to 49 years. Tables are provided to convert raw scores to scaled scores. Age-and education-adjusted scores are provided by applying linear regression techniques. Results:The results show that education impacted most of the verbal fluency test scores, with no effect related to age and only minimal effects related to sex. Conclusions:The norms obtained will be extremely useful in the clinical evaluation of young Spanish adults. Datos normativos; Edad; Escolaridad; Test de lenguaje; Vocabulario Estudios normativos españoles en población adulta joven (proyecto NEURONORMA jóvenes): normas para los test de fluencia verbal ResumenIntroducción: Los test de fluencia verbal se utilizan con frecuencia en la práctica clínica con el fin de explorar el lenguaje y las funciones ejecutivas.Objetivo: En el presente estudio, como parte de los estudios normativos españoles del proyecto NEURONORMA jóvenes, se aportan datos normativos ajustados por edad y escolaridad para ଝ Please cite this article as: Casals-Coll M, et al. Estudios normativos españoles en población adulta joven (proyecto NEURONORMA jóvenes): normas para los test de fluencia verbal. Neurología. 2013;28:33-40.