The effect of alcohol and tobacco consumption, and apolipoprotein E genotype, on the age of onset in Alzheimer's disease.

Objective: This study examined the association between a history of heavy alcohol use and smoking, presence of the apolipoprotein-E epsilon 4 allele (APOE epsilon4), and age of disease onset in a community dwelling sample of 685 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients spanning three ethnic groups.

Design: Cross-sectional study of AD patients evaluated at a University-affiliated outpatient memory disorders clinic.

Subjects: A clinic-based cohort of white non-Hispanic (WNH; n = 397), white Hispanic (WH; n = 264), and African-American (AA; n = 24) patients diagnosed with possible or probable AD according to NINCDS-ADRDA diagnostic criteria.

The utility of a brief memory screen in the diagnosis of mild memory impairment in the elderly: preliminary study.

Objective: This study evaluated the utility of the Florida Brief Memory Screen (FBMS), a new memory screening measure developed for Spanish-speaking and English-speaking subjects, which takes only 3-4 minutes to administer.

Methods: The FBMS was administered to 25 patients with probable Alzheimer disease, 23 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment, and 80 cognitively normal elderly.

Results: The FBMS evidenced good test-retest reliability and high correlation with standard measures of memory.

Using different memory cutoffs to assess mild cognitive impairment.

Objective: Although mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is characterized by performance on memory and other measures below expected normative values, neither a scientific rationale nor a consensus exists regarding which measures have the most use or the optimal cutoffs to use to establish impairment.

Methods: Different memory measures were administered to 80 normal community-dwelling subjects divided into two age groups. This provided conormed data on eight different memory indices by which to compare 23 nondemented clinically diagnosed patients with MCI who met all other criteria for Alzheimer disease (AD).

Cognitive profiles in Alzheimer's disease and in mild cognitive impairment of different etiologies.

There has been increasing interest in determining whether amnestic, nonamnestic and multiple-domain subtypes of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) reflect different disease etiologies. In this study, we examined the extent to which cognitive profiles of nondemented patients with MCI diagnosed with prodromal Alzheimer's disease (AD) differed from those MCI patients diagnosed with vascular disease. We also compared these diagnostic groups to mildly demented patients diagnosed with AD and normal elderly controls.

Practices in forensic neuropsychology: perspectives of neuropsychologists and trial attorneys.

Members of the National Academy of Neuropsychology and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America were surveyed concerning current practices in forensic neuropsychology. The majority of neuropsychologists and attorneys reported that attorneys never observe neuropsychological testing. Attorneys reported receiving raw data in almost all of their brain injury cases, but neuropsychologists reported that they produce raw data in only a minority of their forensic cases.