What are the three little words to diagnose cognitive impairment?

November 20, 2008

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

What are the three little words to diagnose cognitive impairment? 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





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