Evaluation of visual recognition memory for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in patients over 75 years

• Published in: Revue neurologique 2012-06, Vol.168 (6-7), p.483-487
• Main Authors: Poissonnet, A., Henry-Feugeas, M.-C., Drunat, O., Wolmark, Y., Delpierre, S., Koskas, P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer disease (AD); Alzheimer Disease - diagnosis; Alzheimer Disease - psychology; Cognitive Dysfunction - diagnosis; Cognitive Dysfunction - psychology; Delayed matching sample; DMS 48; Early Diagnosis; Educational Status; Elderly people; Female; Free and cued selective reminding test; Grober et Buschke RL/RI 16 items; Humans; Maladie d’Alzheimer; Male; Memory - physiology; Mental Recall - physiology; Mild cognitive impairment (MCI); Neuropsychological Tests; Patients âgés; Recognition (Psychology) - physiology; Reproducibility of Results; Trouble cognitif léger; Visual Perception - physiology
• ISSN: 0035-3787
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neurol.2011.11.004

Current diagnostic criteria of Alzheimer Disease (AD) are mainly based on clinical definition. In France, the Delayed Matching Sample (DMS48) test, a recently introduced test that explores visual object recognition, is recommended for the early diagnosis of AD. However, little is known on the DMS48 performances of older subjects over 75 years. Therefore, our aim was to assess its specific clinical value for early detection of AD in older patients. We studied 93 consecutive patients over 75 years from an expert memory clinic in a geriatric hospital. This population included 31 patients with single domain amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI), 31 AD patients and 31 controls subjects. The aMCI and AD performances on the DMS48 were significantly lower than those of the control subjects (set 1 and set 2, P