3-Minute Test Identifies Poorly Recognized Form of Dementia
A neuroscientist at Florida Atlantic University has developed a quick, effective test for the diagnosis of Lewy Body disease (LBD), a common but under-recognized degenerative disease that is difficult to diagnose.
The Lewy Body Composite Risk Score (LBCRS), a brief rating scale completed by a clinician, is able to effectively diagnose LBD and Parkinson’s disease dementia in approximately 3 minutes, according to researchers.
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“Early detection of Lewy body dementias will be important to enable future interventions at the earliest stages when they are likely to be most effective,” explained James E. Galvin, MD, MPH, lead author of the study and professor of clinical biomedical science in Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine and professor in FAU’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing.
“Our study provides evidence-based methodology that will have applications in clinical practice, participation in clinical trials, prevention studies, community surveys, and biomarkers research,” he said.
For the study, researchers administered the LBCRS to 256 participants in a “real-world” clinic setting with patients referred from the community.
All patients used were compared with the clinical dementia rating and met gold standard measures of cognition, function, behavior, and motor symptoms.
A 30-minute test battery was administered to patients at the time of the office visit to evaluate their cognitive status. Researchers administered the LBCRS after all other rating scales were tallied.
Overall, the LBCRS effectively differentiated between LBD and Alzheimer’s disease with 96.8% accuracy (87% specificity and 90% sensitivity).
“The LBCRS increases diagnostic probability that Lewy body pathology is contributing to the dementia syndrome and should improve clinical detection and enrollment for clinical trials,” they concluded.
The complete study is published in the October issue of Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
-Michelle Canales Butcher
Reference:
Galvin JE. Improving the clinical detection of Lewy body dementia with the Lewy body composite risk score. Alzheimer’s & Dementia. 2015;1(3):316-324.