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P3‐118: Neuropsychological clusters of cognitive impairment: Which cluster bears the highest risk to convert to dementia?
Author(s) -
Damian Marinella,
Hentschel Frank,
Froelich Lutz
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2008.05.1683
Subject(s) - dementia , neuropsychology , cognition , psychology , subclinical infection , logistic regression , cognitive test , cluster (spacecraft) , boston naming test , neuropsychological test , audiology , disease , clinical psychology , medicine , psychiatry , computer science , programming language
and in some studies determination of family history is unclear. As part of a longitudinal study aiming to identify preclinical markers for the development of late-onset AD, we compared the neuropsychological performance of a unique sample of offspring of autopsy-confirmed AD cases to that of matched controls. Methods: All participants were clinically asymptomatic and over age 50. At-risk participants had a parent with autopsyconfirmed AD and at least one first-degree relative with clinically diagnosed probable AD. Controls had no familial history of AD. 90 at-risks and 77 controls were evaluated twice, three years apart. The groups did not differ on age (at-risks, M 61.9, sd 6.7; controls, M 62.4, sd 7.4) or years of education (at-risks, M 15.4, sd 3.4; controls, M 16.2, sd 3.2). All participants received a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery at both time points. This battery included measures of verbal, visual, and olfactory memory, attention and processing speed, and general intellectual ability. Results: Cross-sectional analysis of Time 1 data did not identify any significant differences in performance between the at-risk and control groups. However, at Time 2, the at-risk sample showed significantly poorer consistent long-term retention of words on Buschke Selective Reminding Test (M 26, sd 14.6 vs. M 31, sd 16.6, p 0.032). Furthermore, the at-risks showed significantly greater change on this measure from Time 1 to Time 2, with an average decline of 0.41, p 0.007. Conclusions: Individuals at increased risk for AD performed worse and showed greater decline on a measure of verbal long-term retention, despite being clinically asymptomatic and performing within the normal range. This finding extends the evidence for subclinical performance decrements on tests of memory to first-degree relatives of autopsy-confirmed AD cases at increased risk for AD.