What are the three little words to diagnose cognitive impairment?

Along with clock-drawing test, the words are apple, penny and table.

Patients were instructed to “draw a clock and set the time to ten minutes after eleven,” on a paper with a pre-drawn circle.

They were also asked to recall the three words later in the visit. This so-called Mini-Cog test classified patients as cognitively normal, demented, or mildly cognitively impaired with 83 percent accuracy.

A useful, yet somewhat blunt, tool that primary care doctors can use in a standard 15-minute office visit.

topics: dementia, alzheimer’s

Related posts:

1. New troponin tests to better diagnose a heart attack
2. Dr. SSS: The two most expensive words in medicine
3. My take: Patient tips, questioning tests
4. A doctor bluntly discusses dementia with a patient
5. Grand Rounds 5:1 – In Your Own Words
6. Is Google responsible for the decline of cognitive medicine?
7. Health reform and cognitive dissonance

  Follow on Twitter   Subscribe

Tagged as: patient, primary care