Clinical Evaluation of Participating Individuals included in the Biofinder Cohorts
At baseline individuals included in these cohorts are assessed by a physician experienced in dementia disorders or with special interest in movement disorders. The assessing physician conducts a psychiatric, physical and neurological examination, including a thorough interview with the patient and relative/spouse that focus on ADL function and cognitive impairment. Experienced nurses administer the following tests:
Symptoms Assessment
- The CIMP-QUEST (an informant questionnaire on cognitive symptoms) 2,4
Assessment of Activities of Daily Living
Cognitive Testing
- The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) 1-4
- The clock drawing test 1-4
- The cube-copying test 1-4
- Trail Making A 1,2,4
- The immediate and delayed word recall parts (including the distraction) of the ADAS-cog (which is a 10-word recall task) 1-4
- The Symbol Digit Modalities Test 1,2,4
- The Stroop Test (Victorian version) 1,2,4
- A Quick Test of Cognitive Speed (AQT) 1-4
- Verbal fluency (letter and category) 1,3
- Months backwards 1,3
Motor and Neurological Assessment
- The Hoehn and Yahr assessment 1,3
- The TUG (Time Up and Go) test 1,2,3
- A ten-meter walk test 1,2,3
- The Tandem gait test 1,2,3
- The Figure of eight test 1,2
- Motor examination (part III) of UPDRS (The Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale) 1-3
- Arm-Hand 1,3
The TUG and the ten-meter walk tests are performed in both comfortable and fast gait speed. In comfortable gait speed, subsequent trials of these tests include a dual task (motor and cognitive, respectively). All tests are videotaped for detailed analysis.
Psychiatric Assessments
- HADS (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) 1-4
- Cornell Scale for Assessing Depression in Dementia 1
- CPRS-S (A Comprehensive psychopathological Rating Scale- Self Assessment) 1
- AES-S & AES-I (Apathy Evaluation Scale (self- and informant rating) 1-3
Other Assessments
- SCOPA AUT (Scales for Outcomes of Parkinson’s Disease – AUTonomic symptoms) 1,3
- SCOPA SLEEP (Scales for Outcomes of Parkinson’s Disease – SLEEP) 1,3
- SF12 (The 12-Item Short Form health survey) 1,3
- EQ5D 1-4
- The Floor Maze test 1,2
- Brief Smell Identification Test 1,3
All of the above mentioned assessments are not made in all of the cohorts. The numbers behind each assessment indicate for which cohorts the individual assessment is being assessed as follows:
1) Healthy elderly cohort
2) Mild cognitive symptoms cohort
3) Parkinsonian symptoms cohort
4) Clinical diagnosis of dementia cohort
The study physicians review the inclusion and exclusion criteria for all patients and determine final enrollment. When evaluating the enrollment the physicians are blinded to all CSF, MRI, cognitive tests (except MMSE) and PET data.
The Regional Ethics Committee in Lund, Sweden, has approved the study designs and the consent. All patients have given their written informed consent and all data are analyzed anonymously.