Simple tests may predict progression to Alzheimer's

NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) Simple cognitive tests can help predict the likelihood that a person with mild cognitive impairment will progress to Alzheimer's disease (AD), researchers report in the journal Neurology.

Among 539 older individuals with mild cognitive impairment, the overall rate of progression to AD was 16 percent per year during a 36-month study, Dr. Adam S. Fleisher from the University of California, San Diego, and associates report in the journal.

They found that scores on several tests of mainly memory and recall, combined with the person's APOE4 status, was 81 percent accurate in predicting progression from mild cognitive trouble to AD. APOE4 gene variant is well known to be associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

A second paper in Neurology identifies symptoms associated with progression to AD.

Dr Katie Palmer and colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, investigated whether mood- and motivation-related depressive symptoms and anxiety in 185 individuals with mild cognitive impairment were related to the future development of AD.

Although depressive symptoms were not associated with an increased risk of progressing from mild cognitive impairment to full blown AD, the authors report, each increasing number of anxiety symptoms nearly doubled the risk of progressing to AD.

The risk of progression to AD was also increased significantly in those reporting problems with decision making and in those with persistent worrying, the researchers note.

Among elderly persons without cognitive impairment, the report indicates, the risk of AD nearly doubled with each increasing number of mood-related depressive symptoms.

Elderly patients presenting with both anxiety and memory problems should be closely followed and monitored, ''as there is a very high risk that they will develop Alzheimer's disease within three years,'' Palmer told Reuters Health.

REUTERS RN PM0930