title: The Memory Alteration Test Discriminates between Cognitively Healthy Status, Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Dementia is a worldwide public health problem and there are several diagnostic tools for its assessment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the Memory Alteration Test (M@T) to discriminate between patients with early Alzheimer's disease (AD), patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI), and subjects with a cognitively healthy status (CHS).
  
  
  METHODS
  The discriminative validity was assessed in a sample of 90 patients with AD, 45 patients with a-MCI, and 180 subjects with CHS. Clinical, functional, and cognitive studies were independently performed in a blinded fashion and the gold standard diagnosis was established by consensus on the basis of these results. The test performance was assessed by means of a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis as area under the curve (AUC).
  
  
  RESULTS
  M@T mean scores were 17.7 (SD = 5.7) in AD, 30.8 (SD = 2.3) in a-MCI, and 44.5 (SD = 3.1) in CHS. A cutoff score of 37 points had a sensitivity of 98.3% and a specificity of 97.8% to differentiate a-MCI from CHS (AUC = 0.999). A cutoff score of 27 points had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 98.9% to differentiate mild AD from a-MCI and from CHS (AUC = 1.000).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The M@T had a high performance in the discrimination between early AD, a-MCI and CHS.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Neurología, Unidad de Diagnóstico de Deterioro Cognitivo y Prevención de Demencia, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru ; Unidad de Diagnóstico de Deterioro Cognitivo y Prevención de Demencia, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru ; Unidad de Investigación, Instituto Peruano de Neurociencias, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.
authors.forename: Nilton
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Custodio
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Neurología, Unidad de Diagnóstico de Deterioro Cognitivo y Prevención de Demencia, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru ; Unidad de Diagnóstico de Deterioro Cognitivo y Prevención de Demencia, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru ; Unidad de Investigación, Instituto Peruano de Neurociencias, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lira
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Investigación, Instituto Peruano de Neurociencias, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru ; Unidad de Diseño y Elaboración de Proyectos de Investigación, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru ; Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo Integral y Sostenible, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.
authors.forename: Eder
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Herrera-Perez
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Investigación, Instituto Peruano de Neurociencias, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru ; Servicio de Neurología, Clínica Maisson de Sante, Universidad San Martín de Porres, Lima, Peru.
authors.forename: Liza
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nuñez Del Prado
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación del Envejecimiento, Facultad de Medicina Humana, Universidad San Martín de Porres, Lima, Peru.
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Parodi
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Medicina, Hospital de Chancay, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Neurológicas, Lima, Peru.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Guevara-Silva
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Investigación, Instituto Peruano de Neurociencias, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru ; Servicio de Neurología de la Conducta, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Neurológicas, Lima, Peru.
authors.forename: Sheila
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Castro-Suarez
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Diagnóstico de Deterioro Cognitivo y Prevención de Demencia, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru ; Servicio de Medicina Física y Rehabilitación, Clínica Internacional, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru ; Unidad de Investigación, Instituto Peruano de Neurociencias, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Montesinos
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Investigación, Instituto Peruano de Neurociencias, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cortijo
keywords: Dementia; Differential diagnosis; Memory alteration test