Neuropsychological prediction of dementia using the neuropsychological test battery Vienna – A retrospective study

Abstract

Before clinical cognitive deteriorations appear, the progression of dementia can be predicted by neuropsychological tests. The present study assessed the validity of the Neuropsychological Test Battery Vienna (NTBV) and the discrimination ability between diagnostic groups, subjective cognitive decline (SCD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer's disease (AD) and healthy control (HC). The same patients were surveyed in a follow-up assessment after a mean interval of 25.96 months to examine cognitive performance and disease progression. Differences between NTBV subtests in diagnostic groups were found. The domain (verbal) memory identified best those persons who developed dementia over time. The results of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that areas under the curves ranged from 0.20 to 0.91. The test-retest reliability for NTBV scores ranged from 0.41 to 0.85 in the HC group, 0.15 – 0.87 for the SCD group, 0.39 – 0.80 for the MCI group and 0.51– 0.82 in the total sample group. Psychometric criteria were shown to range from low values to excellent values. The domain memory achieved the best discrimination power for detecting dementia.