Methods

 

In this retrospective study, participants were 20 MCI-c, 31 MCI-nc and 13 HC from Favaloro Foundation 's memory clinic, who had two comprehensive cognitive assessments.

Pairwise group comparisons were used to detect differences in TMT A, B and the difference between TMT B and A (TMT B-A), in screening measures (ACE III and IFS) and across demographic data (age, years of education, follow-up years, depressive symptoms and activities of daily living).

Results

No differences between groups were found across demographic variables. Differences were found between MCI-c and HC in ACE III and IFS (p 0.001, p 0.001). Completion time for TMT A was significantly longer for MCI-c in comparison with MCI-nc and HC (p 0.0001 y p 0.0003). The same differences were observed in TMT B (p 0.01, p 0.0003). Additionally, MCI-nc required significantly more time than HC (p 0.005) to complete this task. Regarding TMT B-A, differences were observed in MCI-c against HC (p 0.002) and in MCI-nc against HC (p 0.003).  In pairwise logistic regression models, only TMTA holds statistical significance against TMTB (p 0.007 vs p 0.58), TMT B-A (p 0.001 vs p 0.58) and ACE III (p 0.0006 vs 0.15).

Conclusions

According to our results, TMT-A and TMT-B may be sensible non-amnestic measures to differentiate MCI-c from MCI-nc and HC. However, TMT-A might be the best of these measures to predict dementia conversion. Future studies should consider larger samples and establish comparisons with non AD pathologies to determine this measure's specificity.