Abstract
Discrimination between senile dementia Alzheimer type (SDAT) patients (N=30) and Normal Controls (N=60) by means of a 6-test set was assessed. Performances on Word Fluency (FL), Memory for Prose (PM) and Finger Agnosia (FA) nearly exhaust the discriminant power of the whole battery, including Constructional Apraxia (CA), Token Test (TT) and Weigl's Sorting Test (WT). The battery, however, leaves some facets of the difference between SDAT patients and Controls unexplored, misclassifying almost 20% of the SDAT patients and 10% of the Controls. We emphasize the role of discriminant analysis in the evaluation of any neuropsychological battery of tests which has to be used for diagnostic purposes.
Sommario
È stata studiata la diagnosi differenziale tra dementi tipo Alzheimer (N=30) e Controlli (N=60) per mezzo di tecniche statistiche di Analisi Discriminante. I punteggi di Fluenza Verbale (FL), Memoria di Prosa (PM) e Agnosia Digitale (FA) sono stati sufficienti a saturare il potere discriminante di tutta la Batteria, che comprendeva anche Aprassia Costruttice (CA) Token Test (TT) e Test di Weigh (WT). La batteria lascia tuttavia scoperti alcuni aspetti della differenza tra i due gruppi, in quanto 20% dei soggetti non sono classificati correttamente. Viene illustrata l'importanza dell'Analisi Discriminante al fine di poter ottimizzare la composizione di batterie neuropsicologiche aventi finalità diagnostiche.
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Bandera, R., Capitani, E., Della Sala, S. et al. Discrimination between senile dementia alzheimer type patients and-education matched normal controls by means of a 6-test set. Ital J Neuro Sci 6, 339–344 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02232012
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02232012