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Description of a novel test for the early detection of Alzheimer's disease

INTRODUCTION: Diagnosing Alzheimer's disease (AD) as soon as possible is critical to achieve an effective treatment of patients.
AIM: To make up a test capable of differentiating those patients suffering from the early stages of AD compared to healthy people or patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A test with 10 memory and language tasks was applied to 85 people: 34 in the early stage of probable AD, 26 with MCI, and 25 healthy people. The groups did not differ with regard to age, sex or studies.
RESULTS: The analysis of variance showed significative differences between groups in all tasks as well as in the global score. Sensibility and specificity were calculated to MCI and AD.
CONCLUSIONS: We designed a new test to detect AD patients on an early stage that is quick and easy to apply. The preliminary scale results in controls, MCI and early AD are shown.

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Reference:
Cuetos-Vega F, Menendez-González M, Calatayud-Noguera T. Description of a novel test for the early detection of Alzheimer's disease. Rev Neurol. 2007 Apr 16-30;44(8):469-74.