title: Alzheimer's disease patient groups derived from a multivariate analysis of cognitive test outcomes in the Coalition Against Major Diseases dataset.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The mini-mental state examination, commonly used to measure cognitive impairment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, consists of five test categories. The final score is calculated as their total sum, implying a loss of information.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, we propose a new multivariate approach to address this issue.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We analyzed the current largest AD-related coalition against major diseases dataset comprising 3717 patients of interest. Our clustering approach revealed five groups of patients associated with distinct characteristics and prognosis. Interestingly, only three cognitive test categories significantly contribute to their determination: registration, attention and recall.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The insight that only these categories are critical for AD group determination may help to resolve the patients' educational background issue often discussed in relation to the mini-mental state examination assessment.
authors.affiliation: Information-Based Medicine Program, Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, NSW, Australia; School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia; Information-Based Medicine Program, Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, NSW, Australia; School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Inna
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tishchenko
authors.affiliation: Information-Based Medicine Program, Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, NSW, Australia; CReDITSS Unit, Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, NSW, Australia; Information-Based Medicine Program, Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, NSW, Australia; CReDITSS Unit, Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Riveros
authors.affiliation: Information-Based Medicine Program, Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, NSW, Australia; School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia; Information-Based Medicine Program, Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, NSW, Australia; School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Moscato
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; mini-mental state examination; multivariate analysis