[Sustained attention in the preclinical phase of Alzheimer's disease].
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.
Estévez-González
A
A
Servicio de Neurología, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, España. 20389aeg@comb.es
García-Sánchez
C
C
Boltes
A
A
García-Nonell
C
C
Rigau-Ratera
E
E
Otermín
P
P
Gironell
A
A
Kulisevsky
J
J
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
La atencion sostenida en la fase preclinica de la enfermedad de Alzheimer.