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,front 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.