Relevance of 10-min delayed recall in dementia screening.
Within the context of early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), there is a growing interest in neuropsychological screening tests. Amongst these tests, we focused on the largely used Memory Impairment Screen (MIS). The objective of the present work was to show that adding a 10-min delayed recall to the MIS, improves the test psychometric characteristics in order to detect dementia in the earliest stages. A prospective study was carried out on a cohort of 270 consecutive elderly ambulatory subjects attending the Broca Hospital Memory Clinic: normal controls (n = 67), mild cognitive impairment subjects (n = 98) and mildly demented patients [n = 105, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) = 23 +/- 4]. This study consisted in testing the advantage of the 10-min delayed recall entitled MIS-D compared with the MIS. At a cut-off score of 6, the MIS-D revealed satisfying psychometric characteristics with a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 91%, whilst the MIS alone indicated a sensitivity of 60% and a specificity of 88% in detecting dementia. In demented patients with MMSE score > or =26, MIS-D properties still remained satisfying (sensitivity: 75%, specificity: 92%). MIS-D is a more relevant screening test than MIS alone at very early stages of dementia.
de Rotrou
J
J
Department of Geriatrics, Broca Hospital, Paris, France. j.dr@brc.aphp.fr
Battal-Merlet
L
L
Wenisch
E
E
Chausson
C
C
Bizet
E
E
Dray
F
F
Lenoir
H
H
Rigaud
A-S
AS
Hanon
O
O
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011594:Psychometrics; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors