TITLE:
Utility of nelson’s modified card sorting test in patients with alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia
AUTHORS:
Jian-Kang Chao, Lyh-Jyh Hao, I-Chen Chao, Ming-Der Shi, I-Hsin Candy Chao
KEYWORDS:
Dementia; Taiwanese; Elderly; Nelson’s Modified Card Sorting Test
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Preventive Medicine,
Vol.3 No.2,
April
29,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Aim: In this study we
used the Nelson’s Modified Card Sorting Test (MCST) to find the differences between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) group/Vascular dementia
(VD) group and a normal control group (non-dementia and non-AD), and to identify
the commonality between the MCST and dementia patients. Patients and Methods:
The MCST was administered to 32 AD patients, 18 vascular dementia patients,
and 38 controls. The relationship between the MCST performance and demographic
characteristics was evaluated. Results: There were no statistical differences
in age, sex, level of education, smoking, drinking and depression in the
three groups. The MCST was classified into four groups for analysis—number of
categories completed (Cat), preservative error score (PE), non-preservative
error score (NPE), unique error (UE) and total error (TE). For Cat, UE and TE
showed a significant difference in all three groups, whereas PE and NPE revealed
no significant difference. Conclusion: These
findings suggest that cognitive function appears to significantly
impair MCST performances in AD and VD patients, so these should be taken into
consideration during an interpretation of the clinical assessment. For the effective
use of the MCST in a clinical setting, further studies of specific clinical populations are planned to develop normative data for elderly Taiwanese people.