title: [Sustained attention in the preclinical phase of Alzheimer's disease].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Deterioration of attention in the preclinical phase of dementia of Alzheimer s type (DAT) is not very well known neither available studies are conclusive.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We outline if would be possible to identify a deficit of sustained attention in preclinical phase of DAT and if this attentional dysfunction could help to identify those patients, referred by subjective memory complaints (SMC), who will progress in a few years to DAT.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared basal exploration in a task of sustained attention (CPT) of 70 patients referred by SMC and followed longitudinally for 2 years. Twenty seven patients developed probable DAT and forty three remained clinically stable.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients who will be diagnosed 2 years later with DAT performed significantly more poorly than patients who did not develop DAT. Patients who will be diagnosed 2 years later with DAT made a higher number of omission errors and obtained a lower number of correct responses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CPT paradigm is a vigilance task that detects deterioration of sustained attention in the preclinical phase of DAT and could be an objective indicator of the cognitive decline in the preclinical phase of Alzheimer s disease.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Neurología, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, España. 20389aeg@comb.es
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Estévez-González
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: García-Sánchez
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boltes
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: García-Nonell
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rigau-Ratera
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Otermín
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gironell
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kulisevsky
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D001288:Attention; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
vernacular_title: La atencion sostenida en la fase preclinica de la enfermedad de Alzheimer.