A screen for cognitive assessments for patients with vascular cognitive impairment no dementia

✍ Scribed by Aihong Zhou; Jianping Jia

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 75 KB
• Volume: 24
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/gps.2265

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Objective

To screen for cognitive assessment for patients with vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) no dementia (V‐CIND) from a set of cognitive measures.

Methods

Extensive neuropsychological tests covering five cognitive domains were performed on 80 V‐CIND patients and 80 normal controls. The impaired domains in V‐CIND were determined and the most discriminating tests were selected to form a comprehensive assessment. The discriminating validity of the individual tests and the comprehensive assessment were explored.

Results

Compared with the control group, five cognitive domains were all impaired in V‐CIND group. World Health Organization‐University of California‐Los Angeles Auditory Verbal Learning Test (WHO‐UCLA AVLT) immediate recall, Semantic Category Verbal Fluency Test (animal), Chinese version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test (WAIS‐RC) Digit Symbol Subtest, and Block Design Subtest were finally selected to form a comprehensive assessment tool, which achieved a sensitivity of 92.5% and a specificity of 98.8% in differentiating V‐CIND patients from normal controls. Even in the subjects with Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores of 28 or above, high discriminative validity was also obtained.

Conclusions

Our study revealed a multiple domain cognitive deficit in V‐CIND patients. The comprehensive assessment tapping memory, executive functions, mental processing speed, and visuoconstructive skill may be potentially useful for an overall cognitive evaluation for V‐CIND. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.