Predictive accuracy of MCI subtypes for Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia in subjects with mild cognitive impairment: A 2-year follow-up study

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic accuracy of different subtypes of mild cognitive impairment (MCI): amnestic MCI, multiple domain MCI, and single non-memory domain MCI, for the development of Alzheimer's dementia ( AD) and vascular dementia (VaD). Patients: Nondemented patients from a memory clinic cohort (n = 118), and a stroke cohort ( n = 80, older than 55 years and with a cognitive impairment). Results: 'Multiple domain MCI' had the highest sensitivity for both AD (80.8%) and VaD (100%), and 'amnestic MCI' had the highest specificity (85.9% for AD, 100% for VaD). The positive predictive value was low for all subtypes (0.0 - 32.7%), whereas the negative predictive value was high (72.8 - 100%). Discussion: The subtype 'multiple domain MCI' has high sensitivity in identifying people at risk for developing AD or VaD. The predictive accuracy of the MCI subtypes was similar for both AD and VaD. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel.