4-7 It. was therefore argued that the elderly populations who were the basis of the “normal cognitive aging” concept were contaminated by individuals with very mild dementia.1, 8, 9 As a result, there is currently no consensus on the definition or on the meaning of mild cognitive deficit, in an older individual, or on the attitude it should trigger in physicians. Periodic reassessment until the selleck kinase inhibitor criteria for a dementia

syndrome are fulfilled, as is currently practiced, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical avoids the risks of overdiagnosis, but conveys those of delaying the initiation of an effective treatment. This daily clinical dilemma would be resolved if physicians were provided with simple instruments allowing a clear differentiation between normal and prodromal cognitive status in a given elderly patient. The goal

of this review is to assess to what, extent this need is currently met. Main concepts and criteria Since Kral’s benign Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical senescent forgetfulness,10 several concepts have been proposed to understand Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical this shadowy zone between optimal and pathological cognitive aging (Table I).10-23 Table I Age-related mild cognitive deficit: definitions and criteria.10-23 AACD, aging-associated cognitive decline; AAMI, age-associated memory impairment; ACMI, age-consistent memory impairment; BVRT, Benton Visual Retention Test; CAMDEX, Cambridge Examination … Cognitive impairment-no dementia (CIND) identifies cognitive impairment associated with Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical various conditions, ranging from age-associated memory impairment

(AAMI)15 to cerebrovascular or general vascular diseases, to depression.22, 24 Mild cognitive disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) 20 and mild cognitive disorder in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) 18 refer to the cognitive consequences Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of somatic disorders. Limited dementia12 and minimal dementia14 clearly refer to a dementia state. AAMI15 and age-consistent memory impairment. (ACMI)16 address normal cognitive aging. Zaudig’s mild cognitive impairment,17 mild cognitive decline,13 and questionable dementia11 rely on global scores on cognitive -behavioral rating scales. The major drawback of this approach is that the same score can reflect different clinical profiles, making Dipeptidyl peptidase clinicopatho logical correlation and betwecn-study comparison difficult. Late life forgetfulness (LLF)16 assesses cognitive deficits relative to what, is considered as normal for age, and aging-associated cognitive decline ( AACD)19 compares in addition with an education- and gender-matched relatively healthy sample. Both provide explicit, inclusion and exclusion criteria and – in the case of LLF – examples of tests.