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. 2001 Dec;13(4):411-23.
doi: 10.1017/s1041610201007839.

Diagnosis of preclinical Alzheimer's disease in a clinical setting

P J Visser  1 , F R Verhey, R W Ponds, J Jolles
Affiliations
Free article

Diagnosis of preclinical Alzheimer's disease in a clinical setting

P J Visser et al. Int Psychogeriatr. 2001 Dec.
Free article

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of the study was to investigate whether the preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD) can be diagnosed in a clinical setting. To this end we investigated whether subjects with preclinical AD could be differentiated from subjects with nonprogressive mild cognitive impairment and from subjects with very mild AD-type dementia.

Methods: Twenty-three subjects with preclinical AD, 44 subjects with nonprogressive mild cognitive impairment, and 25 subjects with very mild AD-type dementia were selected from a memory clinic population. Variables that were used to differentiate the groups were demographic variables, the Mini-Mental State Examination score, performance on cognitive tests, measures of functional impairment, and measures of noncognitive symptomatology.

Results: Age and the scores for the delayed recall task could best discriminate between subjects with preclinical AD and subjects with nonprogressive mild cognitive impairment. The overall accuracy was 87%. The score on the Global Deterioration Scale and a measure of intelligence could best discriminate between subjects with preclinical AD and subjects with very mild AD-type dementia. The overall accuracy was 85%.

Conclusions: Subjects with preclinical AD can be distinguished from subjects with nonprogressive mild cognitive impairment and from subjects with very mild AD-type dementia. This means that preclinical AD is a diagnostic entity for which clinical criteria should be developed.

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