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Cognitive charts using percentile curves — similar to pediatric growth charts — could help determine whether a patient has developed dementia, suggests an article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Researchers used a Canadian cohort of over 6000 healthy adults aged 65 and older and 1200 adults with dementia to construct the QuoCo tool. The model considers the patient's age, years of education, and scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) at 0, 5, and 10 years. For identifying patients with dementia in the training sample, the charts had a sensitivity of 80%, a specificity of 89%, and a negative predictive value of 99%, compared with a fixed MMSE cut point for dementia.
A decline in the charts should prompt further clinical…