Predicting Alzheimer’s Disease in Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment

Ziad Nasreddine MD FRCP(C) Professeur adjoint Université de Sherbrooke et McGill University Neuro Rive-Sud/CEDRA: Centre Diagnostique et Recherche sur la Maladie d'Alzheimer Québec, CanadaMedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ziad Nasreddine MD FRCP(C)
Professeur adjoint
Université de Sherbrooke et McGill University
Neuro Rive-Sud/CEDRA: Centre Diagnostique et Recherche sur la Maladie d’Alzheimer Québec, Canada

MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study?

Dr. Nasreddine: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) total score (MoCA-TS) and Memory Index Score (MoCA-MIS) are useful in predicting conversion to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Identifying individuals with MCI at high of conversion to Alzheimer’s disease is important clinically and for selecting appropriate subjects for therapeutic trials.

MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Dr. Nasreddine: The MoCA and it’s Memory index sub-score is a short and simple test that may be very useful in determining which mild cognitive impairment patients would require close follow-up and attention because of their risk of conversion to dementia.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Dr. Nasreddine: The MoCA usefulness to predict MCI to AD conversion should be compared to Alzheimer’s disease Biomarkers, and possibly associated with them, to improve biomarkers‘ performance, or help determine when biomarkers should be used in mild cognitive impairment subjects in order to improve sensitivity and specificity of these expensive measures.

Citation:
Montreal Cognitive Assessment Memory Index Score (MoCA-MIS) as a Predictor of Conversion from Mild Cognitive Impairment to Alzheimer’s Disease
J Am Geriatr Soc 62:679684, 2014.

  1. Parunyou Julayanont MD,
  2. Mélanie Brousseau SWT,
  3. Howard Chertkow MD,
  4. Natalie Phillips PhD3,6 and
  5. Ziad S. Nasreddine MD

 

Last Updated on April 24, 2014 by Marie Benz MD FAAD