OBJECTIVES: Patients with amnesic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) have a higher risk to develop Alzheimer disease (AD) than general elderly population. The aim of this study is to evaluate the olfactory decrease in patients with aMCI and its correlation with neurocognitive decline. METHODS: 29 aMCI patients (19 women and 10 men, mean age 70.8±5.7) were enrolled in the study and examined at baseline (T0) and at 12 months follow-up (T1). All patients had ENT examination, neuropsycological evaluation, olfactory test and neuroimaging study of the brain. Olfactory function was evaluated by the Sniffin' Sticks Extended Test (SSET) to assess olfactory threshold, discrimination and identification. Neurocognitive functions were assessed by the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and the Mental Deterioration Battery (MDB). Spearman non parametric correlation was used to evaluate correlation between variables. RESULTS: Based on the olfactory score 8 patients were normosmic (27.6 %), 20 hyposmic (68.9%) and 1 anosmic (3.5%) at T0. 3 patients were normosmic (10.3 %), 25 hyposmic (86.2 %) and 1 anosmic (3.5%) at T1. 9 of the 29 aMCI patients (31%) developed AD. The higher statistically significant relationship was found between olfactory discrimination and visuo-spatial ability (0.52; p=0.004) and language skill (0.46; p=0.01) of MDB. CONCLUSIONS: we suggest to introduce the clinical routine use of the SSET test to correlate olfactory and cognitive function in the progression of the decline from aMCI to AD.

Olfactory and neurological evaluation in aMCI patients

EIBENSTEIN, ALBERTO;FUSETTI, Marco
2007-01-01

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Patients with amnesic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) have a higher risk to develop Alzheimer disease (AD) than general elderly population. The aim of this study is to evaluate the olfactory decrease in patients with aMCI and its correlation with neurocognitive decline. METHODS: 29 aMCI patients (19 women and 10 men, mean age 70.8±5.7) were enrolled in the study and examined at baseline (T0) and at 12 months follow-up (T1). All patients had ENT examination, neuropsycological evaluation, olfactory test and neuroimaging study of the brain. Olfactory function was evaluated by the Sniffin' Sticks Extended Test (SSET) to assess olfactory threshold, discrimination and identification. Neurocognitive functions were assessed by the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and the Mental Deterioration Battery (MDB). Spearman non parametric correlation was used to evaluate correlation between variables. RESULTS: Based on the olfactory score 8 patients were normosmic (27.6 %), 20 hyposmic (68.9%) and 1 anosmic (3.5%) at T0. 3 patients were normosmic (10.3 %), 25 hyposmic (86.2 %) and 1 anosmic (3.5%) at T1. 9 of the 29 aMCI patients (31%) developed AD. The higher statistically significant relationship was found between olfactory discrimination and visuo-spatial ability (0.52; p=0.004) and language skill (0.46; p=0.01) of MDB. CONCLUSIONS: we suggest to introduce the clinical routine use of the SSET test to correlate olfactory and cognitive function in the progression of the decline from aMCI to AD.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11697/13135
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