scholarly journals Utility of a Screening Test (MoCa) to Predict Amyloid Physiopathology in Mild Cognitive Impairment

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-91
Author(s):  
María Florencia Clarens ◽  
Ismael Calandri ◽  
María Belen Helou ◽  
María Eugenia Martín ◽  
Patricio Chrem Méndez ◽  
...  

Introduction: The MoCa (Montreal Cognitive Assessment) Screening test has become relevant in recent years in the screening of patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). It is important to seek and study simple and reliable tools in clinical practices that correlate with biological markers that have been used to predict conversion from MCI to AD. Objective: To analyze the MOCA and its cognitive sub-scores and the relationship with Amyloid pathophysiology in Alzheimer’s Disease. Methodology: 32 patients with MCI were studied, they were separated according positive (n: 20) and negative (n: 12) underlying amyloid pathology. The patients performed a extensive cognitive assessment that included MoCa Test. Results: MoCa Total Scores showed significantly different results between groups (p <0.001) as well as the Memory Score (MoCa MIS), the Executive (MoCa EIS), the Attentional Score (MoCa AIS)) (p < 0.001) and the Orientation Score (MoCa OIS)) (p < 0.05) with worse performance of patients with amyloid pathophysiology. Score of MoCa a cut-off point of < 24 was established, since the diagnostic sensitivity at this point was 83% and the specificity 70%. Conclusions: The MoCa is a useful tool to differentiate biomarker status in MCI. Future studies should study this tool in the prodromal phases of the disease.

Author(s):  
Vahid Rashedi ◽  
Mahshid Foroughan ◽  
Negin Chehrehnegar

Introduction: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a cognitive screening test widely used in clinical practice and suited for the detection of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). The aims were to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Persian MoCA as a screening test for mild cognitive dysfunction in Iranian older adults and to assess its accuracy as a screening test for MCI and mild Alzheimer disease (AD). Method: One hundred twenty elderly with a mean age of 73.52 ± 7.46 years participated in this study. Twenty-one subjects had mild AD (MMSE score ≤21), 40 had MCI, and 59 were cognitively healthy controls. All the participants were administered the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) to evaluate their general cognitive status. Also, a battery of comprehensive neuropsychological assessments was administered. Results: The mean score on the Persian version of the MoCA and the MMSE were 19.32 and 25.62 for MCI and 13.71 and 22.14 for AD patients, respectively. Using an optimal cutoff score of 22 the MoCA test detected 86% of MCI subjects, whereas the MMSE with a cutoff score of 26 detected 72% of MCI subjects. In AD patients with a cutoff score of 20, the MoCA had a sensitivity of 94% whereas the MMSE detected 61%. The specificity of the MoCA was 70% and 90% for MCI and AD, respectively. Discussion: The results of this study show that the Persian version of the MoCA is a reliable screening tool for detection of MCI and early stage AD. The MoCA is more sensitive than the MMSE in screening for cognitive impairment, proving it to be superior to MMSE in detecting MCI and mild AD.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (7S_Part_9) ◽  
pp. P442-P443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parunyou Julayanont ◽  
Sookjaroen Tangwongchai ◽  
Solaphat Hemrungrojn ◽  
Chawit Tunvirachaisakul ◽  
Kammant Phanthumchinda ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Langella ◽  
◽  
Muhammad Usman Sadiq ◽  
Peter J. Mucha ◽  
Kelly S. Giovanello ◽  
...  

AbstractWith an increasing prevalence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in response to an aging population, it is critical to identify and understand neuroprotective mechanisms against cognitive decline. One potential mechanism is redundancy: the existence of duplicate elements within a system that provide alternative functionality in case of failure. As the hippocampus is one of the earliest sites affected by AD pathology, we hypothesized that functional hippocampal redundancy is protective against cognitive decline. We compared hippocampal functional redundancy derived from resting-state functional MRI networks in cognitively normal older adults, with individuals with early and late MCI, as well as the relationship between redundancy and cognition. Posterior hippocampal redundancy was reduced between cognitively normal and MCI groups, plateauing across early and late MCI. Higher hippocampal redundancy was related to better memory performance only for cognitively normal individuals. Critically, functional hippocampal redundancy did not come at the expense of network efficiency. Our results provide support that hippocampal redundancy protects against cognitive decline in aging.


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