Background: A series of "syndromes" have been described to classify cognitively impaired but not demented subjects. These “syndromes” are mainly centered in the description of cognitive changes associated with “physiological” aging or classifying subjects between cognitively normal subjects and demented people.
Objective: To assess the cognitive profiles of subjects diagnosed of mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
Design: Comparison of cognitive profiles of normal aged controls with subjects diagnosed of MCI.
Materials and Methods: Aged normal controls (n= 65) were recruited as part of a project of standardization of cognitive tests. MCI cases were globally defined according to the clinical characteristics of Global Dementia Staging (GDS) 3 (“subjective complaints with some objective deficits which do not meet dementia criteria”) and were not restricted to memory. The diagnosis of MCI was made if the patient met the following criteria:
(1) memory and/or other cognitive complaint,
(2) “normal” activities of daily living,
(3) “normal” general cognitive function, and
(4) not demented.
Measurements: MMSE, Barcelona Test descriptive neuropsychological profiles, Blessed DRS, IDDD.
Statistics: descriptive and ANOVA for the different subscale scores.
Results: The differences between controls and MCI were centered in memory (paragraph recall and delayed visual reproduction), and in complex and executive tasks of different cognitive domains. Cognitive domains mildly affected were executive verbal and motor tasks (animal fluency, graphical and motor sequences), abstraction (similarities), complex visual perception (overlapping figures), visuomotor speed and execution
Conclusion: MCI is more than a memory problem and seems affect so-called executive functions. MCI is a global concept that includes heterogeneous transitional clinical status from normality and different types of dementia.
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