Biomedical subjects

Anthony J Perkins

Publications and source records attributed to Anthony J Perkins.

21 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed2002

Six-item screener to identify cognitive impairment among potential subjects for clinical research.

OBJECTIVE: To design a brief cognitive screener with acceptable sensitivity and specificity for identifying subjects with cognitive impairment. DESIGN: Cohort one is assembled from a community-based survey coupled with a second-stage diagnostic evaluation using formal diagnostic criteria for dementia. Cohort two is assembled from referrals to a specialty clinic for dementing disorders that completed the same diagnostic evaluation. SETTING: Urban neighborhoods in Indianapolis, Indiana and the Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center. PATIENTS: Cohort one consists of 344 community-dwelling black persons identified from a random sample of 2212 black persons aged 65 and older residing in Indianapolis; cohort two consists of 651 subject referrals to the Alzheimer Disease Center. MEASUREMENTS: Formal diagnostic clinical assessments for dementia including scores on the Mini-mental state examination (MMSE), a six-item screener derived from the MMSE, the Blessed Dementia Rating Scale (BDRS), and the Word List Recall. Based on clinical evaluations, subjects were categorized as no cognitive impairment, cognitive impairment-not demented, or demented. RESULTS: The mean age of the community-based sample was 74.4 years, 59.4% of the sample were women, and the mean years of education was 10.1. The prevalence of dementia in this sample was 4.3% and the prevalence of cognitive impairment was 24.6%. Using a cut-off of three or more errors, the sensitivity and specificity of the six-item screener for a diagnosis of dementia was 88.7 and 88.0, respectively. In the same sample, the corresponding sensitivity and specificity for the MMSE using a cut-off score of 23 was 95.2 and 86.7. The performance of the two scales was comparable across the two populations studied and using either cognitive impairment or dementia as the gold standard. An increasing number of errors on the six-item screener is highly correlated with poorer scores on longer measures of cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS: The six-item screener is a brief and reliable instrument for identifying subjects with cognitive impairment and its diagnostic properties are comparable to the full MMSE. It can be administered by telephone or face-to-face interview and is easily scored by a simple summation of errors.

Black or African American↗

PubMed2002

Bone loss at the femoral neck in premenopausal white women: effects of weight change and sex-hormone levels.

To investigate whether bone loss occurs in the premenopause, we measured the bone mineral content (BMC), bone mineral density (BMD), and bone area in the spine (L2-L4), femoral neck, and total hip, as well as the sex hormone levels of 130 healthy premenopausal white women (age, 31-50 yr) at least three times over 1-9 yr. We found an increase in all three bone measurements at the spine but no change in volumetric density. Neither could we detect any age-related changes in any of the three measurements in the total hip. In contrast, we detected a significant decrease in femoral neck BMD over time, due to a decrease in BMC and increase in bone area. Greater loss in femoral neck BMD was associated independently with weight loss and lower levels of estrone sulfate or E2. Separating the women into those with FSH spikes (>20 IU/liter) and women with consistently low FSH, we found the latter group had smaller decrease in BMD and that the decrease was due less to a decline in BMC and more to an increase in bone area. In summary, femoral neck BMD decreases in premenopausal women, particularly those with lower levels of estrogens resulting from slowing ovarian function despite regular menses. This decrease can be offset by more rapid weight gain.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Informant reports of changes in personality predict dementia in a population-based study of elderly african americans and yoruba.

OBJECTIVE: The authors conducted a longitudinal, population-based survey of African Americans in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Yoruba in Ibadan, Nigeria, using the Community Screening Interview for Dementia to assess the predictive value of informant reports of changes in personality on incident dementia and Alzheimer disease. METHODS: In all, 3,021 subjects had informants' reports of changes in personality and dementia status (2,084 subjects residing in Ibadan and 937 subjects residing in Indianapolis). RESULTS: After adjusting for demographic, cognitive, and functional characteristics in two markedly different populations, socioeconomically and culturally, subjects with changes in personality had approximately twice the odds of having dementia as subjects with no change in personality. CONCLUSION: The finding that in two markedly different populations, personality change is a significant predictor of future dementia, independent of cognition and functional status, should make clinicians particularly sensitive to these reports when they occur in their elderly patients.

Black or African American↗