Santillan et al developed a model for predicting the risk that a patient with mild Alzheimer's disease will decline. The authors are from the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Parameters:
(1) education level
(2) insight assessment (Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease, CERAD)
(3) psychosis
(4) activities of daily living score of Blessed et al
(5) Mini-Mental State Examination
|
Parameter |
Finding |
Points |
|
educational level |
0 to 12 years of schooling |
0 |
|
|
13 years or more |
1 |
|
insight assessment |
awareness of illness |
0 |
|
|
partially aware |
2 |
|
|
complete unawareness of illness |
2 |
|
psychosis |
absent |
0 |
|
|
present |
2 |
|
ADL score |
0 – 3 |
0 |
|
|
3.5 - 17 |
2 |
|
Mini-Mental State Exam |
20 – 30 |
0 |
|
|
0 – 19 |
3 |
total score =
= SUM(points for all 5 parameters)
Interpretation:
• minimum score: 0
• maximum score: 10
|
Total Score |
Risk of Decline |
|
0 to 4 |
low |
|
5 to 10 |
high |
Limitations:
• Some of the sensitivities and specificities reported in Table 2 (page 91) indicate that some components of the score may not be very useful. For example, educational level had a sensitivity of 0.51 and specificity of 0.54.
Specialty: Neurology
