10-minute delayed recall from the modified mini-mental state test predicts Alzheimer's disease pathology.

We compared the sensitivity and specificity of two delayed recall scores from the Modified Mini-Mental State (3MS) test with consensus clinical diagnosis to differentiate cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) versus non-AD pathologies. At a memory disorders clinic, 117 cognitively impaired patients were administered a baseline 3MS test and received a contemporaneous consensus clinical diagnosis. Their brains were examined after death about 5 years later.

Preservation of neurons of the nucleus basalis in subcortical ischemic vascular disease.

Objective: To investigate loss of neurons in the nucleus basalis (NB) of Meynert in patients with subcortical ischemic vascular disease (SIVD) compared with healthy controls, patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), and patients with mixed AD and SIVD.

Design: Autopsied cases drawn from a longitudinal observational study of patients with SIVD, patients with AD, and healthy controls.

Setting: Multi center, university-affiliated, program project neuropathology core.

Performance of Spanish speakers on the Mattis dementia rating scale (MDRS).

This paper examined whether education-, age-, and gender-matched Spanish- and English-speaking normals (n=30 pairs) had comparable scores on the Mattis dementia rating scale (MDRS). It provides preliminary normative data on Spanish-speaking volunteers aged 55-89 years old (n=54). It also compared the MDRS total score with its memory subscale score and the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) score on sensitivity and specificity for distinguishing normals from patients with dementia (n=61).

Neuronal loss is greater in the locus coeruleus than nucleus basalis and substantia nigra in Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases.

Context: Alzheimer disease (AD) and Parkinson disease (PD) are associated with neuronal degeneration in major subcortical nuclei, but few studies have examined the neuronal degeneration in these nuclei concurrently.

Objective: To identify clinical and pathological correlates of neuronal loss in the nucleus basalis (NB), locus coeruleus (LC), and substantia nigra pars compacta (SN) in AD and PD.

Design: The study sample comprised 86 cases with pathologically confirmed AD, 19 cases with PD, and 13 healthy elderly control subjects.

Neuron loss in key cholinergic and aminergic nuclei in Alzheimer disease: a meta-analysis.

Cell counts in the cholinergic nucleus basalis (NB), noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC), dopaminergic substantia nigra (SN), and the serotonergic dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) were assessed from primary-level reports in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) and in controls. Sixty-seven studies that covered about 20 years were included in the meta-analysis. Effect sizes were computed as a standardized mean difference (d) in cell counts between AD and controls.