It’s always interesting to see what the mainstream media “does” with a story such as this. Quite frequently, the sublime gives way to the sensational, and the true meaning of the story gets lost in all the hype. In the case of a research tool that has been studied by the researchers who have developed it, examiners who follow a point system which ranks the most common associative laboratory, imaging, and clinical findings in tested patients can “predict” with reasonable confidence the likelihood that those patients will develop a degenerative dementia.

Of course, like any discovery, its researchers warn of limited generalizability to the greater patient population, and that more research and instrument validation are needed before widespread adoption is recommended. (Excuse me while I yawn.) While this finding may have utility, its “availability” is virtually useless. Much, if not practially all, of the data used to come up with the indices for patient scoring and ranking were culled from existing data from other trials in which a diagnosis of cognitive impairment was already apparent or strongly clinically suggested. In other words, known associations with cognitive slowing in the aged had to be accounted for in the development of the index in a retrospective fashion.

At best, this measurement, even in its finished and validated form, should be used as a clinical treatment guide to what should be the ultimate diagnostic tool (short of a definitive finding at autopsy) — a well-taken history and an even better-performed physical examination. | LINK

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