Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer´s Disease: evaluation of recent classification criteria and proposal of new diagnostic tools

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Publications

The free and cued selective reminding test for predicting progression to alzheimer's disease in patients with mild cognitive impairment: A prospective longitudinal study

Publication . Lemos, Raquel; Maroco, João; Simões, Mário R.; Santiago, Beatriz; Tomás, José; Santana, Isabel

Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients carry a greater risk of conversion to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Therefore, the International Working Group (IWG) on AD aims to consider some cases of aMCI as symptomatic prodromal AD. The core diagnostic marker of AD is a significant and progressive memory deficit, and the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT) was recommended by the IWG to test memory in cases of possible prodromal AD. This study aims to investigate whether the performance on the FCSRT would enhance the ability to predict conversion to AD in an aMCI group. A longitudinal study was conducted on 88 aMCI patients, and neuropsychological tests were analysed on the relative risk of conversion to AD. During follow-up (23.82 months), 33% of the aMCI population converted to AD. An impaired FCSRT TR was significantly associated with the risk of conversion to dementia, with a mean time to conversion of 25 months. The FCSRT demonstrates utility for detecting AD at its prodromal stage, thus supporting its use as a valid clinical marker.

2017Journal article

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Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test is superior to the Wechsler Memory Scale in discriminating mild cognitive impairment from alzheimer's disease

Publication . Lemos, Raquel; Cunha, Catarina; Marôco, João Paulo; Afonso, Ana; Simões, Mário R.; Santana, Isabel

Aim: The Logical Memory (LM) and the Verbal Paired Associative Learning (VPAL) are subtests from the Wechsler Memory Scale commonly used to characterize the memory deficit of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT) was suggested to assess the memory impairment of AD spectrum patients by the International Working Group on AD. In the present study, we compared the properties of the tests and their accuracy in classifying aMCI and AD. Methods: A group of aMCI patients (n=85) and AD patients (n=43) were included. The reliability and the validity of the three tests were analyzed. Results: AD patients showed a significant pattern of worse impairment on all tests than aMCI. The FCSRT was able to classify more patients as having memory impairment in the aMCI group rather than the WMS subtests. The FCSRT proved to be good in discriminating the two groups in both lower and higher educational levels, whereas the LM was more useful in higher educated patients. Conclusions: Although the instruments had good results, the FCSRT was more accurate in discriminating MCI from AD, and less influenced by the educational level.

2015Journal article

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Construct and diagnostic validities of the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test in the alzheimer’s disease spectrum

Publication . Lemos, Raquel; Maroco, João; Simões, Mário R.; Santana, Isabel

The Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT) is a memory test that controls attention and acquisition, by providing category cues in the learning process. Because it enables an assessment of memory not confounded by normal age-related changes in cognition and a high accuracy on Alzheimer's disease (AD) evaluation, it has been suggested by the International Working Group on AD. Our aim was to assess the construct related validity of the FCSRT in the AD spectrum disorders.

2016Journal article

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