Affiliations: [a] Memory Unit, Department of Neurology, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Biomedical Research Institute Sant Pau, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| [b]
Barcelona Down Medical Center, Fundació Catalana de Síndrome de Down, Barcelona, Spain
| [c]
Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas, CIBERNED, Spain
Correspondence:
[*]
Correspondence to: Dr. Alberto Lleó, Department of Neurology, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Sant Antoni Maria Claret, 167, 08025 Barcelona, Spain. Tel.: +34935565986; Fax: +34935565602; E-mail: alleo@santpau.cat.
Note: [1] These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract: Background: Episodic memory impairment is the core feature of typical Alzheimer’s disease. Objective: To evaluate the performance of two commonly used verbal memory tests to detect mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease (MCI-AD) and to predict progression to Alzheimer’s disease dementia (AD-d). Methods: Prospective study of MCI patients in a tertiary memory disorder unit. Patients underwent an extensive neuropsychological battery including two tests of declarative verbal memory: The Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT) and the word list learning task from the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s disease (CERAD-WL). Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was obtained from all patients and MCI-AD was defined by means of the t-Tau/Aβ1–42 ratio. Logistic regression analyses tested whether the combination of FCSRT and CERAD-WL measures significantly improved the prediction of MCI-AD. Progression to AD-d was analyzed in a Cox regression model. Results: A total of 202 MCI patients with a mean follow-up of 34.2±24.2 months were included and 98 (48.5%) met the criteria for MCI-AD. The combination of FCSRT and CERAD-WL measures improved MCI-AD classification accuracy based on CSF biomarkers. Both tests yielded similar global predictive values (59.9–65.3% and 59.4–62.8% for FCSRT and CERAD-WL, respectively). MCI-AD patients with deficits in both FCSRT and CERAD-WL had a faster progression to AD-d than patients with deficits in only one test. Conclusions: The combination of FCSRT and CERAD-WL improves the classification of MCI-AD and defines different prognostic profiles. These findings have important implications for clinical practice and the design of clinical trials.
