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From the Departments of Neurology (D.W.D., J.T.M., M.S., Y.S.),
Biostatistics (E.B.), and Psychiatry (M.S., Y.S.) and the Gertrude H.
Sergievsky Center (M.S., Y.S.), Columbia University, College of Physicians and
Surgeons, New York, NY.
Correspondence to David W. Desmond, PhD, Neurological Institute, 710 West 168th St, New York, NY 10032. E-mail dwd2{at}columbia.edu
MethodsWe administered neuropsychological, neurological, and
functional examinations to 244 patients (age, 71.7±8.5 years) 3 months
after ischemic stroke. We diagnosed dementia using each of the
following methods: (1) neuropsychological testing, requiring deficits
in increasing numbers of cognitive domains, both with and without
memory impairment, as well as functional impairment; (2) Mini-Mental
State Examination (MMSE) score of <24; and (3) neurologists' clinical
judgment. We then used survival analyses to investigate the
ability of diagnoses based on those methods to predict death and
recurrent stroke during long-term follow-up.
ResultsLog-rank tests and Cox proportional hazards
analyses, with recurrent stroke entered as a time dependent
covariate, determined that all of the paradigms were significant
predictors of mortality, but the performance of paradigms based
on neuropsychological testing was superior to the use of the MMSE and
clinical judgment, particularly when memory impairment was required.
Log-rank tests determined that paradigms based on neuropsychological
testing were the only significant predictors of recurrent stroke and
performed best when memory impairment was required.
ConclusionsOur results suggest that dementia diagnosis based on
neuropsychological assessment and an operationalized paradigm requiring
deficits in memory and other cognitive domains is superior to other
conventional methods in its ability to identify patients at elevated
risk of adverse outcomes following stroke.
Prior studies have used a variety of methods in the diagnosis of
dementia, most frequently relying on the clinical judgment of
physicians or mental status testing. In part due to limitations in time
and personnel, neuropsychological testing has been used less
frequently. Despite the numerous studies that have been performed on
patients with dementia, however, few have attempted to investigate the
validity of those diagnostic methods. Given that dementia
can be considered to identify a patient who is "at risk," the
investigation of the predictive validity of those approaches could be
of particular importance. Thus, in the present study, we used
variations of each of the diagnostic methods listed above
to determine whether dementia was present or absent in a sample of
patients with ischemic stroke and investigated the ability of
those diagnoses to predict death and recurrent stroke. We attempted to
answer three specific questions: (1) Is formal cognitive testing
superior to the use of clinical judgment in the diagnosis of dementia?
(2) If so, is dementia diagnosis based on neuropsychological assessment
and an operationalized paradigm superior to mental status testing? and
(3) Does a requirement of memory impairment significantly influence the
predictive validity of operationalized paradigms based on
neuropsychological assessment?
This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of
ColumbiaPresbyterian Medical Center, and all subjects provided
informed consent.
Patient Assessment Procedures
As part of the same assessment, we administered the
MMSE,11 a popular mental status test tapping
verbal memory, orientation, language, visuospatial function, and
attention and mental control, and all patients were seen for
comprehensive neurological examinations by neurologists specializing in
cerebrovascular disease and dementia. We also administered the Blessed
Functional Activity Scale,12 which taps the
cognitive aspects of activities of daily living, and we operationally
defined functional impairment as a total score of
Diagnostic Paradigms
In addition to paradigms based on neuropsychological testing, we
examined the use of the standard MMSE11 cutoff of
a total score of <24 in the diagnosis of dementia. We also examined a
diagnosis of dementia based solely on the clinical judgment of the
examining neurologists, who were blinded to the results of
neuropsychological testing in making that determination.
Patient Follow-up
Statistical Analyses
The median duration of follow-up from the baseline dementia
assessment until patient death or the end of patient surveillance was
56.5 months. Seventy-two deaths (29.5% of the cohort) and 46 recurrent
strokes (18.9% of the cohort) occurred. Recurrent stroke and pneumonia
or other infectious diseases were each the primary cause of one fourth
of the deaths in our cohort; the remaining deaths resulted from
myocardial infarction or other forms of cardiovascular
disease, systemic malignancy, or other causes, in decreasing order of
frequency.
Dementia As a Predictor of Adverse Outcomes
Given that age and stroke severity are established predictors of stroke
outcome, we performed additional Cox proportional hazards
analyses to assess the utility of a neuropsychological paradigm
that performed well in the preceding analyses, which required
deficits in memory and one or more additional cognitive domains as well
as functional impairment, in the prediction of death and recurrent
stroke while adjusting for those factors, with age coded as 80+ years
and 70 to 79 years versus 60 to 69 years and baseline Stroke Severity
Scale score coded as
The results of our study suggest that dementia diagnosis based on
neuropsychological assessment has superior predictive validity compared
with other conventional methods and would be a worthwhile component of
many stroke outcome studies. While all paradigms were significant
predictors of death, paradigms based on neuropsychological assessment
performed best and were the only significant predictors of recurrent
stroke. Functional information was a standard component of the
neuropsychological paradigms that we examined, but those paradigms
remained superior even after identical information regarding functional
impairment was added to paradigms based on use of the MMSE and clinical
judgment, suggesting that the more extensive assessment of cognitive
function was the basis for their superior predictive validity. In
particular, a requirement of memory impairment appeared to be central
to the superior performance of paradigms based on
neuropsychological assessment. Although we found that dementia
diagnosis based on neuropsychological assessment provides predictive
information beyond that of established factors such as age and stroke
severity, it was not our intention to suggest that dementia could be
considered to be an adequate sole predictor of the adverse outcomes
that we studied. Instead, our findings suggest that dementia diagnosed
using neuropsychological testing and an operationalized paradigm should
be incorporated into multivariate predictor models,
along with variables such as dementia subtype and severity, stroke
subtype and severity, infarct characteristics, vascular risk factors,
and demographic variables.
If we can assume that superior performance in the prediction of
adverse outcomes can serve as evidence of the validity of diagnoses
based on a certain paradigm, the prevalence or frequency of dementia
that results from the use of such a paradigm should be considered to be
most accurate because it is best able to identify "true" cases of
dementia. The paradigms that predicted adverse outcomes best were those
based on neuropsychological assessment and requiring memory impairment,
and they identified dementia in approximately one fourth of our cohort.
Thus, our findings provide support for the NINDS-AIREN, DSM-IV, and
ICD-10 paradigms, but they do not suggest that any one of those
codified paradigms is superior. While a paradigm requiring impairment
in
An important strength of operationalized diagnostic
paradigms lies in their high level of
reliability,23 24 in contrast to the use of
clinical judgment, which has been shown to have only moderate
reliability in the recognition of physiological
signs and symptoms in neurological examination.25
In the Stroke Data Bank,26 dementia diagnosis
based solely on clinical judgment resulted in a frequency of dementia
of 16.0%, with a
While dementia or similar concepts have long been in use, only recently
have efforts been made to operationally define that disorder. It is
informative to review the history of criteria for the diagnosis of
dementia through the successive editions of the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders. In DSM-I,31 the term "chronic
brain syndrome" was used rather than dementia and diagnosis was
treated descriptively, with impairment in orientation, memory,
intellectual functions, and judgment, as well as lability and
shallowness of affect, thought to be characteristic, but functional
deficits were neither discussed nor required to reach that diagnosis.
In DSM-II,32 "senile and presenile dementia"
were described as subtypes of organic brain syndrome and the psychoses.
Much as in DSM-I, those disorders continued to be treated descriptively
rather than operationally defined, but the inability to meet the
ordinary demands of life had become an implied criterion. While
impairment in multiple cognitive domains was discussed in both DSM-I
and DSM-II, neither text described how cognitive abilities should be
assessed.
A significant conceptual advance occurred with the publication of
DSM-III,33 which presented an
operationalized definition of dementia in order to enhance the
reliability of that diagnosis. Memory impairment was now specifically
required, as well as impairment in one or more additional cognitive
domains, including abstract thinking, judgment, and other higher
cortical functions (eg, aphasia and apraxia), and bedside tasks were
suggested that might be administered to assess those abilities.
Impairment in social or occupational functioning was also explicitly
required. While the criteria for dementia diagnosis were essentially
unchanged with the publication of DSM-III-R, further significant
modifications were made in DSM-IV.16 Deficits in
memory and one or more other cognitive domains, as well as impairment
in social or occupational functioning, continued to be required, but it
was noted that those deficits should represent a significant
decline from a previously higher level of functioning. In addition, for
the first time, neuropsychological assessment was explicitly
recommended. It is worthy of note that the criteria for dementia
diagnosis proposed by the International Workshop of the
NINDS-AIREN15 and presented in
ICD-1017 are quite similar to those in
DSM-IV16 and also include the recommendation that
neuropsychological testing be performed. Alternatively, other
influential guidelines have avoided the use of operationalized criteria
for the diagnosis of dementia but also recommend the use of
neuropsychological testing.18
While neuropsychological assessment is more labor intensive than the
administration of a mental status test or a neurological examination,
the significantly greater predictive power of that technique could
permit the early identification of patients at risk of adverse outcomes
and provide an opportunity for the initiation of targeted
interventions. Neuropsychological assessment can also provide more
precise information regarding the pattern of cognitive deficits
exhibited by patients than the other methods, which can be useful when
efforts are being made to define the subtype of
dementia.34 Recently, the Therapeutics and
Technology Assessment Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology
published a position paper stating that the utility of
neuropsychological assessment is "established" for the assessment
of patients with dementia as well as chronic
stroke.35 While future studies should investigate
alternative diagnostic paradigms and varied
neuropsychological test batteries in patients with stroke to determine
whether additional precision in the prediction of adverse outcomes is
possible, it is our belief that the widespread adoption of these
methods would facilitate the recognition and treatment of patients with
dementia and, potentially, reduce the significant public health burden
associated with that disorder.
Received May 19, 1997;
revision received September 19, 1997;
accepted September 30, 1997.
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Original Contributions
Dementia as a Predictor of Adverse Outcomes Following Stroke
An Evaluation of Diagnostic Methods
![]()
Abstract
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Subjects and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
Background and PurposeAlthough it
is understood that dementia is a risk factor for adverse outcomes,
little is known about the predictive validity of the numerous methods
that have been proposed for its diagnosis. Thus, we performed the
present study to assess the utility of a variety of
diagnostic methods in the prediction of adverse outcomes
following stroke.
Key Words: dementia mortality neuropsychological tests stroke, ischemic stroke outcome
![]()
Introduction
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Subjects and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
Although
dementia is typically considered to be a primary consequence of a
number of neurological diseases, it can also serve as a risk factor for
other adverse outcomes. Many studies have reported that survival is
reduced among patients with dementia, particularly in a setting of
cerebrovascular disease.1 2 3 4 5 6 It has also been
reported that clinically stroke-free subjects with severe cognitive
impairment are at an elevated risk of first
stroke7 and that stroke patients with dementia
are at an elevated risk of long-term stroke recurrence compared
with nondemented stroke patients.8 The results of
these studies suggest that the ability to accurately diagnose dementia
could permit the identification of patients at risk of adverse events
and the initiation of targeted interventions in those patients.
![]()
Subjects and Methods
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Subjects and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
Subjects
As part of a prospective study of stroke and
dementia,9 we examined 244 patients (age,
71.7±8.5 years; education, 10.1±4.5 years) recruited within 30 days
of ischemic stroke. Stroke was defined as the acute onset of a
focal neurological deficit attributable to cerebrovascular disease and
supported by CT scan (normal or relevant infarct). Eligibility criteria
included age
60 years and the absence of any comorbid disorders that
might limit survival or affect cognitive function, although patients
were not excluded if a premorbid history of functional impairment
suggested that they might also have Alzheimer's disease. Our
sample was derived from a larger cohort of 297 patients. Forty-six of
those patients were excluded from the present study because they
were not examined 3 months after stroke, and 7 of those patients could
not be diagnosed using each of the diagnostic paradigms
that will be described below because they were unassessable in certain
critical aspects of neuropsychological testing.
We administered a battery of neuropsychological tests developed
for use in epidemiological studies of dementia10
to all patients in either English or Spanish 3 months after stroke. The
battery included measures of memory (the Selective Reminding Test and a
multiple-choice recognition version of the Benton Visual Retention
Test), orientation (the Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE]
orientation subtest), language (a 15-item version of the Boston Naming
Test, letter and category fluency tests, and the repetition and complex
ideation subtests of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia
Examination), visuospatial function (the Rosen Drawing Test and a
multiple-choice matching version of the Benton Visual Retention Test),
and abstract reasoning (the Similarities subtest of the Wechsler Adult
Intelligence ScaleRevised and the Identities and Oddities subtest of
the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale). Impairment on each
neuropsychological subtest was identified based on a predetermined set
of cutoff scores developed in a pilot study.10
Patients were considered to be impaired within a specific cognitive
domain when their scores on one or more of the subtests within that
domain fell below the predetermined cutoffs.
0.5 not solely
attributable to physical disability. Based on the neurological
examination and the Barthel Index,13 which taps
the physical aspects of activities of daily living, we calculated a
total score for each patient on the Stroke Data Bank Stroke Severity
Scale.14
We examined multiple approaches to the diagnosis of dementia,
all of which were based on assessments performed 3 months after stroke.
First, based on neuropsychological testing, we required impairment in
increasing numbers of cognitive domains as well as functional
impairment. We also examined a modification of that method in which
memory impairment was required to be one of the defective domains. Use
of those paradigms permitted us to directly investigate the predictive
validity of the following sets of codified criteria for the diagnosis
of dementia: (1) deficits in memory and two or more other cognitive
domains as well as functional impairment, as proposed for use in the
diagnosis of vascular dementia by the International Workshop organized
by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and
StrokeAssociation Internationale pour la Recherche et l'Enseignement
en Neurosciences (NINDS-AIREN)15 ; (2) deficits in
memory and one or more other cognitive domains as well as functional
impairment, as presented in the fourth edition of the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (DSM-IV)16 ; and (3) deficits in
memory and an unspecified number of additional cognitive domains as
well as functional impairment, as presented in the tenth
edition of the International Classification of Diseases
(ICD-10).17 While the description of the criteria
proposed for use in the diagnosis of vascular dementia by the State of
California Alzheimer's Disease Diagnostic and
Treatment Centers states that "most patients with dementia will
exhibit deficits on more than one type of intellectual
task,"18 a specification of the number and type
of deficits required for the diagnosis of dementia was explicitly
withheld, rendering formal study of those criteria in the present
manuscript inappropriate.
In-person follow-up examinations were performed annually, and
interim 6-month telephone calls were made to document subjects' vital
status and identify any clinically evident recurrent strokes that may
have occurred. Continuous screening of admissions to our medical center
permitted us to identify additional recurrences as well as
illnesses leading to subject death. Death was confirmed by review of
medical records and death certificates, when available. Similar to
our definition of the index stroke, recurrent stroke was defined
as the acute onset of a focal neurological deficit attributable to
cerebrovascular disease and supported by CT scan (normal or relevant
infarct), if performed. We further required that the neurological
deficit be clearly different from that of the index stroke, involve a
different anatomic site or vascular territory from that of the index
stroke, or be of a stroke subtype different from that of the index
stroke. Only recurrent strokes occurring after the 3-month dementia
assessment were considered in this study.
We performed log-rank tests to determine whether dementia
diagnoses based on each of the methods described above were significant
predictors of death and recurrent stroke. In addition, given that
dementia may be a significant predictor of recurrent
stroke,8 which may in turn be a significant
predictor of death,19 we performed Cox
proportional hazards analyses, adjusting for recurrent stroke
as a time-dependent covariate, to ensure that any significant
association we might recognize between a diagnostic method
and death would not be an artifact of that paradigm's ability to
predict recurrent stroke. The log-rank test and Cox proportional
hazards analysis provide estimates of the risk of an outcome
given the presence of a factor compared with the risk of that outcome
without the presence of that factor during a defined time period.
![]()
Results
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Subjects and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
Frequencies of Dementia and Adverse Outcomes
Tables 1
and 2
and Tables 3
and 4
present the frequencies of dementia associated with the use of each
diagnostic method stratified by the occurrence of death and
recurrent stroke, respectively. Regarding the frequency of dementia,
the less restrictive neuropsychological paradigms diagnosed dementia in
more than half of our cohort. In contrast, a requirement of deficits in
all domains as well as functional impairment diagnosed dementia in one
tenth of the cohort, whereas most of the paradigms requiring memory
impairment diagnosed dementia in one fourth of the cohort. Regarding
the diagnostic methods that did not involve
neuropsychological testing, use of the MMSE diagnosed dementia in one
third of the cohort while clinical judgment diagnosed dementia in one
fifth of the cohort. Essentially, the patients who were found to be
demented based on clinical judgment were a subset of the patients who
were found to be demented based on neuropsychological paradigms
requiring memory impairment, while that group of patients was a subset
of those who were found to be demented based on MMSE
performance. Although it was not a primary focus of this study,
it is worthy of note that a sole requirement of functional impairment
diagnosed dementia in three fourths of the cohort.
View this table:
[in a new window]
Table 1. Prediction of Death During Follow-Up by Dementia
Status: Performance of Neuropsychological Paradigms
View this table:
[in a new window]
Table 2. Prediction of Death During Follow-Up by Dementia
Status: Performance of Nonneuropsychological Paradigms
View this table:
[in a new window]
Table 3. Prediction of Recurrent Stroke During Follow-Up
by Dementia Status: Performance of Neuropsychological
Paradigms
View this table:
[in a new window]
Table 4. Prediction of Recurrent Stroke During Follow-Up
by Dementia Status: Performance of Nonneuropsychological
Paradigms
As shown in Tables 1
and 2
, log-rank tests and Cox proportional
hazards analyses, adjusting for recurrent stroke as a time
dependent covariate, demonstrated that paradigms based on
neuropsychological assessment were the best predictors of death,
particularly when memory impairment was specifically required. While
the less restrictive neuropsychological paradigms, the MMSE, clinical
judgment, and the use of a sole criterion of functional impairment were
all significant predictors of death in the Cox proportional hazards
analyses, they were the weakest of the predictors. Similarly,
as shown in Tables 3
and 4
, log-rank tests demonstrated that dementia
diagnoses based on neuropsychological paradigms requiring memory
impairment or deficits in four or more cognitive domains as well as
functional impairment were the only significant predictors of recurrent
stroke.
7 versus <7. We found that dementia diagnosed
using that paradigm remained a significant independent predictor of
death while adjusting for the significant effects of baseline Stroke
Severity Scale score and the nonsignificant effects of age as well as
after further adjusting for the significant effects of recurrent stroke
as a time-dependent covariate. Similarly, dementia diagnosed using that
paradigm remained a significant independent predictor of recurrent
stroke while adjusting for the nonsignificant effects of age and
baseline Stroke Severity Scale score.
![]()
Discussion
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Subjects and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
Although it was not a primary focus of this study, it is
worthwhile to review potential explanations for the importance of
dementia as a predictor of recurrent stroke and
death.6 8 First, patients with dementia after
stroke tend to have more severe cerebrovascular disease than
nondemented patients, including characteristics such as a larger total
volume of infarction and a greater number of vascular risk factors.
Thus, in certain patients, dementia may serve as a surrogate for those
characteristics that are actually increasing the risk of recurrent
stroke and death. Second, patients with dementia might have more
difficulty adhering to their medication regimens, with inconsistencies
in compliance potentially resulting in less effective stroke
prophylaxis and an elevated risk of recurrent stroke and death. Third,
physicians might be hesitant to prescribe anticoagulant medications to
demented stroke patients when otherwise indicated because of the
adverse consequences that could result from inconsistent
compliance or accidents such as falls.
4 cognitive domains, regardless of whether memory impairment was
specifically evident, performed well, memory impairment was likely to
have been present in patients diagnosed with dementia by that
paradigm because of the large number of cognitive domains that were
required to be impaired. Despite those findings, it should not be
inferred that the sole presence of memory impairment is adequate for
the diagnosis of dementia. As illustrated by the frequencies of
dementia presented in Tables 1
and 3
, all patients with memory
impairment had deficits in one or more additional cognitive domains,
and most patients with memory impairment had deficits in two or more
additional cognitive domains. Based on our findings and
consistent with the results of prior
studies,20 21 22 we can infer that the MMSE and the
less restrictive neuropsychological paradigms overdiagnosed dementia,
whereas clinical judgment underdiagnosed dementia.
coefficient of 0.34 suggesting that interrater
reliability was only moderate. Solari et al27
performed a record review based on 50 patients presenting with
possible cognitive impairment of varied etiology and reported a
coefficient of 0.49 for agreement on dementia diagnosis among four
neurologists using DSM-III-R28 criteria.
Similarly, Fratiglioni et al29 reported only
moderate interrater reliability for the use of DSM-III-R criteria, and
they suggested that interrater reliability could be improved by
providing operationalized guidelines for the definition of impairment
in cognitive function. In the present study, dementia diagnosis
based on clinical judgment performed reasonably well in the prediction
of mortality, but skilled neurologists specializing in stroke and
dementia provided those diagnoses. Evidence in support of their
specialized knowledge lies in the failure of the addition of a
requirement of functional impairment to enhance the utility of that
paradigm, suggesting that those neurologists had already incorporated
functional information into their determinations, as noted in a prior
study.30 Thus, it is likely that the utility of
clinical judgment is reduced when it is used by less specialized
neurologists.
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Acknowledgments
Presented in part at the 25th annual meeting of the
International Neuropsychological Society, Orlando, Fla, February 6,
1997. This work was supported by grants R01-NS26179 and P01-AG07232
from the National Institutes of Health.
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References
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Subjects and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
1.
Barclay LL, Zemcov A, Blass JP, Sansone J.
Survival in Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementias.
Neurology. 1985;35:834840.
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