Abstract
BackgroundThere remains a lack of large-scale clinical studies of cognitive impairment that aim to increase diagnostic and prognostic accuracy as well as validate previous research findings. The MemClin project will amass large quantities of cross-disciplinary data allowing for the construction of robust models to improve diagnostic accuracy, expand our knowledge on differential diagnostics, strengthen longitudinal prognosis, and harmonise examination protocols across centres. The current article describes the Memory Clinic (MemClin) project’s study-design, materials and methods, and patient characteristics. In addition, we present preliminary descriptive data from the ongoing data collection.MethodsNine out of ten memory clinics in the greater Stockholm area, which largely use the same examination methods, are included. The data collection of patients with different stages of cognitive impairment and dementia is coordinated centrally allowing for efficient and secure large-scale database construction. The MemClin project rest directly on the memory clinics examinations with cognitive measures, health parameters, and biomarkers.ResultsCurrently, the MemClin project has informed consent from 1543 patients. Herein, we present preliminary data from 835 patients with confirmed cognitive diagnosis and neuropsychological test data available. Of those, 239 had dementia, 487 mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 104 subjective cognitive impairment (SCI). In addition, we present descriptive data on visual ratings of brain atrophy and cerebrospinal fluid markers.ConclusionsBased on our current progress and preliminary data, the MemClin project has a high potential to provide a large-scale database of 1200–1500 new patients annually. This coordinated data collection will allow for the construction of improved diagnostic and prognostic models for neurodegenerative disorders and other cognitive conditions in their naturalistic setting.
Highlights
Here, we introduce a new clinical multi-centre study (Memory Clinic: MemClin) intended to fill the gap for large-scale clinical studies aimed at describing early stages of cognitive decline regarding diagnostic accuracy, longitudinal prognosis, differential diagnostics, and at creating better harmonised examination protocols
mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and subjective cognitive decline (SCD) individuals may have a heterogeneous aetiology for cognitive impairment in early phases, with diverse clinical manifestations and different temporal trajectories of both their somatic and cognitive profiles
We have recently shown that the an unbiased classification scheme (A/T/N) scheme is a promising tool for increasing the degree of certainty in diagnostic and prognostic procedures when used in conjunction with information on brain atrophy (as assessed with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)) [19]
Summary
We introduce a new clinical multi-centre study (Memory Clinic: MemClin) intended to fill the gap for large-scale clinical studies aimed at describing early stages of cognitive decline regarding diagnostic accuracy, longitudinal prognosis, differential diagnostics, and at creating better harmonised examination protocols.The risk of dementia rises sharply with age [1], and according to the United Nations the aging population is increasing [2]. We introduce a new clinical multi-centre study (Memory Clinic: MemClin) intended to fill the gap for large-scale clinical studies aimed at describing early stages of cognitive decline regarding diagnostic accuracy, longitudinal prognosis, differential diagnostics, and at creating better harmonised examination protocols. Dementia affects approximately 5% of the world’s elderly population [1], and the percentage of people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) increases exponentially: 3% between 65 and years, 17% between and years, and 32% older than years [3]. These statistics describe the magnitude of the burden of cognitive disorders on the health-care system [3]. We present preliminary descriptive data from the ongoing data collection
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