title: Lack of practice effects on neuropsychological tests as early cognitive markers of Alzheimer disease?
abstract: Reliable assessment of change from previous cognitive functioning is a prerequisite for determining the possible presence of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). We investigated whether standardized change scores on the German version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease-Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (CERAD-NAB) could be used for early diagnosis of AD and whether change scores on the CERAD-NAB are superior in this respect to scores recorded on 1 occasion only. Three hundred seventy-four normal control subjects were assessed twice. Data from 95 patients with mostly mild probable AD were collected at their first entry to a memory clinic and an average of 1.1 +/- 0.24 years later. It is concluded that repeated testing with the CERAD-NAB does not generally add to improved diagnostic accuracy for mild and very mild AD and cannot, therefore, be recommended as a routine clinical procedure.
authors.affiliation: Memory Clinic-Neuropsychology Center, University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Antoinette E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Zehnder
authors.forename: Stafan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bläsi
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berres
authors.forename: Rene
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Spiegel
authors.forename: Andreas U
authors.initials: AU
authors.lastname: Monsch
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D012016:Reference Values; D012189:Retrospective Studies