Is it possible to identify individuals with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease using a 30-minute neuropsychological battery?

Abstract

Background: Distinguishing individuals with dementia from those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) might demand a neuropsychological evaluation. Methods: One hundred and thirty-one consecutive referred elderly patients (37 clinical-controls, 41 with amnestic MCI and 53 with possible/probable AD) were diagnosed with a comprehensive (full) neuropsychological battery, MRI and clinical data. All of the results were blindly coded and evaluated latter with a subset of the tests to reclassify the subjects as MCI, dementia or clinical-control. Agreement rates between both batteries were calculated. We also used ROC curves to establish the sensitivity and specificity of the brief battery for discriminating (i) clinical-control individuals from a group dementia and MCI patients; (ii) individuals with dementia from individuals without dementia; (iii) clinical-control individuals from a group of MCI. We compared performance of the three groups on all full battery tasks. Results: All neuropsychological tests showed differences between clinical-control and dementia groups. The comparison between MCI and the other groups mainly showed memory differences. Agreement between brief and full batteries was substantial (kappa = 0.805). Analyses with ROC curves showed good sensitivity and specificity to discriminate non-demented (clinical control plus MCI groups) and AD group and also to discriminate clinical-control individuals from individuals with cognitive decline (MCI plus AD group). However, sensitivity and specificity significantly decreased when brief battery was tested to discriminate only normal and MCI diagnosis. Discussion: The use of a brief battery might not be indicated to discriminate MCI and clinical-control individuals, but its use might be adequate to discriminate less specific groups (demented versus non-demented and pathological [dementia and MCI] and non-pathological [clinical-control] groups).

Awareness of memory deficits is useful to distinguish between depression and mild cognitive impairment in the elderly

“…The neuropsychological battery also addressed other cognitive functions and has been described elsewhere. 8 Our clinical control, MDD, and MCI groups included 25, 16, and 22 individuals respectively. Half of the MCI patients were classified as multiple domain and half were classified as single domain subtype.…”

Narrative impairment, white matter damage and CSF biomarkers in the Alzheimer’s disease spectrum

“…When it comes to identifying MCI, it has been suggested that those subjects may not be discernible from normal aging using basic screening tasks [27]. Hence, assessment of complex cognitive abilities, which rely on processing and integrating data from different cognitive functions, appears to be of greater value for the detection of those cases [28].…”

Sintomas Depressivos no Comprometimento Cognitivo Leve. Revisão Sistemática

“…Dados epidemiológicos trazem taxas de prevalência de CCL entre 14 e 18% para os indivíduos com idade superior a 70 anos. 6 O CCL representa a transição entre as mudanças cognitivas normais do envelhecimento e as primeiras manifestações clínicas da doença de Alzheimer e pode ser definido como um transtorno em indivíduos que não apresentam demência, mas que relataram deficiências de memória incompatível para a sua idade; contudo, ainda apresentam um desempenho normal em territórios cognitivos e nas atividades de vida diária. 7 É dividido em duas categorias: CCL amnésico e CCL não amnésico, sendo que cada uma destas, apresentam dois subtipos: de domínio simples e de múltiplos domínios.…”