Examining the Diagnostic Accuracy of a Novel Performance-Based Test for Alzheimer's Disease Screening

Affordable, rapid methods for identifying mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) are needed. A simple, brief performance-based test involving the learning of functional upper-extremity movements has been developed and is associated with AD pathology and functional decline. However, its specificity to AD relative to other neurodegenerative diseases that present with motor impairment is unknown. This study examined whether this novel test could distinguish between 34 participants diagnosed with mild AD (Clinical Dementia Rating Scale = 0.5-1) from 23 participants with mild-to-moderate Parkinson's disease (PD) (Hoehn and Yahr = 2-3) using Receiver Operating Characteristic analysis of secondary data from two separate clinical trials. Indicators of diagnostic accuracy demonstrated that the test identified participants with AD, who had worse scores than those with PD, suggesting it may be a viable screening tool for mild AD. Exploratory analyses with a control group (n=52) further showed that test scores were not sensitive to motor dysfunction.