Articles: dementia.
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Develop a taxonomy for understanding and classifying goals in the care of persons with dementia. ⋯ The findings suggested that patients, primary family caregivers, and clinicians can articulate goals of care and may bring differing perspectives to the goal-setting process. The research identified a taxonomy that may facilitate negotiation of goals by revealing important, and perhaps overlooked, aspects of goals and the goal-setting process.
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In a prospective study of more than 200 cases of dementia and 119 controls, annual technetium-99m-hexamethyl-propylene amineoxime (99mTC-HMPAO) single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and annual medial temporal lobe (MTL) oriented X-ray computed tomography (CT) have been used to evaluate the diagnostic potential of functional and structural neuroimaging in the differential diagnosis of dementia. Some subjects have had up to 7 annual evaluations. So far, of 151 who have died, 143 (95%) have come to necropsy. ⋯ The frequent occurrence of MTL atrophy in AD and also in other "non-AD" dementias later in the course of the disease suggests the concept of medial temporal lobe dementia. This could explain some of the overlap of clinical profiles in the dementias, particularly as the dementia progresses, making clinical differential diagnosis difficult. In this context, the use of SPECT can significantl
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Aging (Milan, Italy) · Aug 1998
Comparative StudyIs the telephone interview for cognitive status a valid alternative in persons who cannot be evaluated by the Mini Mental State Examination?
The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), a widely used tool for first-line assessment of cognitive function, cannot be fully administered to persons with severe visual or upper extremity impairments. This cross-sectional study, which was performed in a sample of patients admitted to the outpatient clinic of the INRCA Geriatric Department "I Fraticini" (Firenze, Italy) and their relatives, evaluated whether the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS), a test originally created for telephone screening of cognitive impairment, is a valid alternative for assessment of cognition in persons who cannot provide valid responses to all the MMSE items. Fifteen subjects in each of seven MMSE strata (9-11, 12-14, 15-17, 18-20, 21-23, 24-26, 27-30) were consecutively selected. ⋯ More than 90% of the cases "screening positive" (i.e., scoring below a certain cut-off) by the TICS, were also identified as "screening positive" when comparable MMSE cut-off scores were used. Using comparable cut-off scores, the sensitivity and specificity of TICS and MMSE in detecting a standard clinical diagnosis of dementia largely overlapped. In persons who cannot be evaluated with the MMSE in its full form, the face-to-face administration of the TICS is a reliable and valid alternative.