TY - JOUR
T1 - Rate of progression and prognostic factors in Alzheimer's disease
T2 - A prospective study
AU - Lucca, U.
AU - Comelli, M.
AU - Tettamanti, M.
AU - Tiraboschi, P.
AU - Spagnoli, A.
PY - 1993
Y1 - 1993
N2 - Objective: To study rate of progression and correlates of cognitive and functional/behavioral deterioration in Alzheimer patients. Design: A 1-year multicenter prospective study. Setting: Outpatients and inpatients at geriatric institutions. Patients: Fifty-six patients with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease according to DSM-III criteria of Primary Degenerative Dementia. Main Outcome Measures: Blessed Dementia Scale (BDS) and Blessed Information-Memory-Concentration test (BIMC) measured at baseline, third, sixth, and twelfth month. Results: The mean annual (±SD) rate of progression of our sample was 3.5 (±3.7) points on the BDS and 2.6 (±4.9) on the BIMC, with a wide range of variability. The level of cognitive impairment (BIMC score) at baseline predicted functional and behavioral deterioration: the better the initial BIMC score, the less the rate of negative change of BDS (r = 0.37, P = 0.006). Furthermore, the younger the patients at the disease onset, the faster the progression of cognitive impairment (r = 0.48, P = 0.0003), with men having a slower rate of progression (P = 0.004) than women. Conclusions: The present study confirms previous findings showing a wide individual variability in rate of progression of cognitive and functional/behavioral impairment as assessed by BIMC and BDS. The cognitive profile may predict the clinical evolution better than the functional and behavioral status, with patients with an earlier onset and women having a faster deterioration.
AB - Objective: To study rate of progression and correlates of cognitive and functional/behavioral deterioration in Alzheimer patients. Design: A 1-year multicenter prospective study. Setting: Outpatients and inpatients at geriatric institutions. Patients: Fifty-six patients with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease according to DSM-III criteria of Primary Degenerative Dementia. Main Outcome Measures: Blessed Dementia Scale (BDS) and Blessed Information-Memory-Concentration test (BIMC) measured at baseline, third, sixth, and twelfth month. Results: The mean annual (±SD) rate of progression of our sample was 3.5 (±3.7) points on the BDS and 2.6 (±4.9) on the BIMC, with a wide range of variability. The level of cognitive impairment (BIMC score) at baseline predicted functional and behavioral deterioration: the better the initial BIMC score, the less the rate of negative change of BDS (r = 0.37, P = 0.006). Furthermore, the younger the patients at the disease onset, the faster the progression of cognitive impairment (r = 0.48, P = 0.0003), with men having a slower rate of progression (P = 0.004) than women. Conclusions: The present study confirms previous findings showing a wide individual variability in rate of progression of cognitive and functional/behavioral impairment as assessed by BIMC and BDS. The cognitive profile may predict the clinical evolution better than the functional and behavioral status, with patients with an earlier onset and women having a faster deterioration.
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M3 - Article
C2 - 8418122
AN - SCOPUS:0027393529
VL - 41
SP - 45
EP - 49
JO - Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
JF - Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
SN - 0002-8614
IS - 1
ER -