Redefining Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment as an Early Form of Alzheimer's Disease Based on Assessment of Memory Systems.

Background: It has been suggested that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can be used to identify patients at risk of developing clinical stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of amnesic syndrome of dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) as a continuous degenerative process from normality to amnesic syndrome and provide a classification of the degrees of amnesia.

Methods: Of 3,800 new incidental cases at the Memory Clinic, 747 were classified as non-demented patients.