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Although patients who develop Alzheimer disease (AD) clearly decline before their diagnosis, the slope of that decline is unknown. To learn more, researchers reviewed records for 199 AD patients who were evaluated multiple times before diagnosis (average, 4.2 evaluations during ≤10 years). The investigators examined five cognitive factors, each developed from several neuropsychological tests, and examined how the decline for each factor fit models of decline.
There were two measures of memory. “Retention” showed a plateau from about 4 to 2 years before AD diagnosis, and this best fit the model of bilogistic decline (initial linear decline, followed by a stable period, followed by further linear decline). The logistic (linear) model best fit …