The Tower of London Test: different scoring criteria for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment.
The Tower of London (TOL) is used for evaluating planning skills, which is a component of the executive functions. Different versions and scoring criteria were developed for this task, and some of them present with different psychometrical properties. This study aimed to evaluate two specific scoring methods of the TOL in diagnosing Mild Cognitive Impairment and probable Alzheimer's disease. The TOL total scores from 60 patients of each diagnosis were compared with the performance of 60 healthy-aged controls using receiver operating characteristics analysis and multinomial logistic regression. Krikorian method better diagnosed Alzheimer's disease, while Portellas's was better at discriminating healthy controls from Mild Cognitive Impairment, but were not efficient at comparing this last group with Alzheimer's patients. Regression analysis indicates that in addition to screening tests, TOL improves the classification of the three groups. The results suggest the two scoring methods used for this task may be useful for different diagnostic purposes.
Laboratory of Neuropsychological Investigations (LIN), INCT de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. jonasjardim@gmail.com
Jonas Jardim
JJ
de Paula
Lafaiete
L
Moreira
Rodrigo
R
Nicolato
Luiz Armando
LA
de Marco
Humberto
H
Côrrea
Marco Aurélio
MA
Romano-Silva
Edgar Nunes
EN
de Moraes
Maria Aparecida
MA
Bicalho
Leandro Fernandes
LF
Malloy-Diniz
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011340:Problem Solving; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012016:Reference Values