title: The heterogeneity of mild cognitive impairment: a neuropsychological analysis.
abstract: A group of 94 nondemented patients self-referred to an outpatient memory clinic for memory difficulties were studied to determine the incidence of single versus multi-domain mild cognitive impairment (MCI) using Petersen criteria. Fifty-five community dwelling normal controls (NC) participants without memory complaints also were recruited. Tests assessing executive control, naming/lexical retrieval, and declarative memory were administered. Thirty-four patients exhibited single-domain MCI, 43 patients presented with multi-domain MCI. When the entire MCI sample (n = 77) was subjected to a cluster analysis, 14 patients were classified with amnesic MCI, 21 patients with dysexecutive MCI, and 42 patients were classified into a mixed/multi-domain MCI group involving low scores on tests of letter fluency, "animal" fluency, and delayed recognition discriminability. Analyses comparing the three cluster-derived MCI groups versus a NC group confirmed the presence of memory and dysexecutive impairment for the amnesic and dysexecutive MCI groups. The mixed MCI group produced lower scores on tests of letter fluency compared with the amnesic MCI and NC groups and lower scores on tests of naming and memory compared with the NC group. In summary, multi-domain MCI is quite common. These data suggest that MCI is a highly nuanced and complex clinical entity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19102, USA. dlibon@drexelmed.edu
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Libon
authors.forename: Sharon X
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Eppig
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wicas
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lamar
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lippa
authors.forename: Brianne M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Bettcher
authors.forename: Catherine C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Price
authors.forename: Tania
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Giovannetti
authors.forename: Rod
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Swenson
authors.forename: Denene M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Wambach
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000647:Amnesia / Q000503:physiopathology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000145:classification* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires