BioMed CentralAnnals of General Psychiatry

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Open AccePoster presentationNeuropsychological evidence of conversion from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to dementiaIoannis Zalonis*1,2,3, Panagiotis Sgouropoulos2,3, Elisavet Kapaki2, Sokratis Papageorgiou2, Dimitra Kolovou3, Giorgos Paraskevas2, Fotini Christidi1 and Dimitrios Vassilopoulos1,2,3

Address: 1Neuropsychological Lab, Department of Neurology, Aeginition Hospital, Medical School, National University of Athens, Athens, Greece, 2Department of Neurology, Aeginition Hospital, Medical School, National University of Athens, Athens, Greece and 3Department of Degenerative Diseases,Department of Neurology, Aeginition Hospital, Medical School, National University of Athens, Athens, Greece

* Corresponding author

BackgroundThe state between normal cognition and dementia isknown as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) [1]. Whilecognitive impairment that does not meet the clinical crite-ria for dementia is common, it is known that MCI, is asso-ciated with an increased risk of developing dementia[2,3]. Worse performance on neuropsychological tests (>1SD from the mean performance) is a significant marker ofcognitive impairment [4]. The purpose of the presentstudy is to assess neuropsychological functions in clini-cally diagnosed MCI subjects and to determine evidenceof preclinical dementia.

Materials and methodsOne hundred and three (N = 103) patients who met theclinical criteria for MCI were assessed and after 12months, thirty five patients of them (N = 35) were re-assessed, since during the first examination, their per-formance on memory tests and other cognitive tests devi-ated significantly from performance of healthy controls(N = 121). All patients underwent an extensive series ofneuropsychological tests, covered many cognitivedomains [4].

ResultsMCI subjects showed poorer performance compared tocontrols, especially on tests of verbal and visual memory

(p.000). However, they constituted a heterogeneousgroup, since re-examination revealed subgroups a) withimproved performance and/or no more decline becauseof reversible reasons, b) with stable performance withoutfurther decline and c) with progressive decrease of per-formance and decline in many cognitive domains. Sub-jects with decline in multiple cognitive domains, apartfrom memory, constituted a homogeneous group withdistinctive neuropsychological characteristics. Betweentest re-test, the range of scores on neuropsychological testswas found to increase. Moreover, this group performedsignificantly worse (p.000) on tests that assess speed ofinformation processing, recall of meaningful new seman-tic and visual material, amount and rate of verbal learn-ing, abstract reasoning and executive functions. Theabove-mentioned dysfunctions progressively resulted indecline of intelligence (verbal cognitive functions and vis-uomotor dexterities).

ConclusionsGiven their performance on an extensive neuropsycholog-ical battery, subjects with clinical MCI show a characteris-tic profile of dysfunctions with decline in multiplecognitive domains. Test re-test assessments provideincreased evidence that these multiple cognitive impairedsubjects constitute a homogeneous group with high riskof conversion to dementia.

from International Society on Brain and Behaviour: 3rd International Congress on Brain and BehaviourThessaloniki, Greece. 28 November – 2 December 2007

Published: 17 April 2008

Annals of General Psychiatry 2008, 7(Suppl 1):S134 doi:10.1186/1744-859X-7-S1-S134

<supplement> <title> <p>International Society on Brain and Behaviour: 3rd International Congress on Brain and Behaviour</p> </title> <note>Meeting abstracts - A single PDF containing all abstracts in this Supplement is available <a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/files/pdf/1744-859X-7-S1-full.pdf">here</a>.</note> </supplement>

This abstract is available from: http://www.annals-general-psychiatry.com/content/7/S1/S134

© 2008 Zalonis et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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Annals of General Psychiatry 2008, 7(Suppl 1):S134 http://www.annals-general-psychiatry.com/content/7/S1/S134

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