Retrospective postmortem dementia assessment. Validation of a new clinical interview to assist neuropathologic study.
Neuropathologic studies of dementia and normal aging suffer from a lack of individuals examined for the presence and severity of dementia before death. To increase clinical information in such cases, a retrospective collateral interview was developed. Thirty-nine individuals were studied; 27 had autopsies. In all cases, the autopsy confirmed the Retrospective Collateral Dementia Interview (RCDI) diagnosis of the presence or absence of dementia; the RCDI had a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 80% for specifically detecting probable Alzheimer's disease. Agreement between the RCDI and premortem diagnosis was 96%; between RCDI and medical records, 100%. Agreement between RCDI staging of dementia severity and the last assessment of the living subject was 70%; between the RCDI and a brief staging at death, 86%. This validation confirms the value of postmortem interviews with close informants to assess dementia presence and severity.
Davis
P B
PB
Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo.
White
H
H
Price
J L
JL
McKeel
D
D
Robins
L N
LN
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003643:Death; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires