Α 7 Minute Neurocognitive Battery to Alzheimer's disease in Greek elderly people
Μ. TSOLAKI, V. IAKOVIDOU, Ε. PAPADOPOULOU, Μ. ΑΜΙΝΤΑ, Ε. NAKOPOYLOU, Τ. ΡΑΝΤΑΖΙ, Α. KAZIS
3rd Department of Neurology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

The increasing prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) suggests that there is an increasing need for accurate and early administered screening instruments. The 7 Minute Screen is a neurocognitive screening battery consisting of 4 brief tests (Enhanced Cued Recall, Temporal Orientation, Verbal Fluency, and Clock Drawing). We studied fifty five outpatients with probable. AD, forty healthy volunteers of comparable age, sex and education and thirty one elderly patients with other neuropsychological disorders. The aim of our study was to determine the validity and reliability of this test. Differences on individual tests were evaluated using the Student t test. (Recall 6,4 ± 5,02/15,38 ± 0,95, Orientation 48,76 ± 42,74/0,2 ± 0,52, Verbal 8,2 ± 4,94/18,05 ± 4,63, Clock Drawing 2,07 ± 2,56/6,03 ± 1,25 for AD patients and control subjects respectively). Mean scores for patients with AD and control subjects on all 4 individual tests were significantly different (for each p < 0,001 ). The mean time to complete the test for healthy control subjects was 9 minutes 18 seconds, for neuropsychological disorders 9 minutes and 6 seconds and for AD patients 13 minutes and 32 seconds (p< 0,001). Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the degree to which the battery discriminated between control subjects and patients with AD (sensitivity 92,73% and specificity 97,50%). We then separated the patients with MMSE > 20 and the same model of regression analysis was used. The sensitivity was 81,25% and the specificity was 96,55% using as cutoff probability 0.7 and 93,75%. and 96,55 respectively using as cutoff probability 0.5. Neither age nor education and gender had an effect on the results. The 7 Minute Screen appears highly sensitive to AD patients and may be useful in helping to make initial distinctions between patients with early dementia and normal elderly.

Key words: Dementia, Screening, 7 minute scren