Data from a longitudinal study provided measurements of cognition to screen for Alzheimer's disease.
BACKGROUND
This article presents a computerized method to help predict individuals at risk for developing Alzheimer's disease (AD). This would be a valuable tool for clinicians in developing treatment plans for potential AD patients. Using the initial level and rates of change in visual memory performance, such a method could predict potential AD patients in a fast and inexpensive manner. A longitudinal case-control study of 52 female and 145 male participants was performed in a gerontology research center using premorbid tests of visual memory and neurologic examinations to identify individuals with and without dementia and AD.


METHODS
The classification method for each individual starts on the second examination and proceeds to compute that person's risk of AD one examination at a time based on all the follow-up information of the remaining individuals.


RESULTS
By performing a crossvalidation study, the optimal combination of sensitivity and specificity derived from a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed 65% of the Alzheimer cases and 75% of the noncases were correctly classified for females, while 65 and 60% of cases and noncases, respectively, were correctly classified for males.


CONCLUSIONS
Longitudinal measurements of cognition can be useful in detecting the presence of AD.
Brant
Larry J
LJ
Gerontology Research Center, National Institute on Aging, 5600 Nathan Shock Drive, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA. larry_brant@nih.gov
Sheng
Shan L
SL
Morrell
Christopher H
CH
Zonderman
Alan B
AB
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012372:ROC Curve