TMA-93 for Diagnosing Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Comparison With the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test

Abstract

Background: TMA-93 examines binding by images, an advantage for the less educated individuals. Aim: To compare the discriminative validity of TMA-93 against the picture version of Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT) to distinguish patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) from normal controls (NCs) without excluding less educated individuals. Methods: Design: Phase I diagnostic evaluation study. Participants: A total of 30 patients with aMCI and 30 NCs matched for sociodemographics variables. Statistical Analysis: The diagnostic accuracy for each test was calculated by conducting receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Hanley and McNeil method was used to compare diagnostic accuracy of different tests on the same sample. Results: Up to 41.7% of the sample had less than a first grade of education. Both tests showed excellent diagnostic accuracy. The comparisons did not show significant differences. Conclusions: TMA-93 is so accurate as FCSRT to differentiate aMCI from controls including less educated individuals. The test could be considered as a choice in this sociodemographic context.

Internal Consistency and Test-retest Reliability of the Visual Memory Associative Test TMA-93

“…Internal consistency was evaluated in an extension of a cross-sectional, case-control study with convenience sampling originally designed to compare the discriminative validity of the TMA-93 to distinguish aMCI patients from HCs [10].…”

“…Another asset of the TMA-93 is its short administration time. The average time needed for its completion was 6 min for aMCI patients and only 3 min for HCs [10]. In this sense, the test could be feasible for screening memory complaints in busy primary care and general neurology outpatient settings with limited face-to-face time per patient.…”

“…In the original paper, the test demonstrated high diagnostic accuracy for discriminating AD patients from healthy controls in a sample of immigrant residents from a district in Paris (France) [9]. A posterior validation study in older educationally-diverse Spanish people demonstrated that the test is so sensitive as the picture version of the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT) in discriminating between amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) patients and healthy controls (HCs) [10]. In this study, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis determined an optimal area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.97 (95% CI, 0.89-1.00, p < 0.001) to distinguish between the two groups [10].…”

“…From these studies, we know that the test ran with a ceiling effect which is moderated by age and education [12]. This ceiling effect has been considered an advantage for the test in diagnosing aMCI since a small number of errors can be a worrisome result for a patient [10].…”

Reliability and Feasibility of the Memory Associative Test TMA-93

“…A posterior validation study in older educationally-diverse Spanish people demonstrated that the test is so sensitive as the picture version of the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT) in discriminating between amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients and healthy controls (HCs) [16]. In that study, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis determined an optimal area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.97 (95% CI, 0.89-1.00, p < 0.001) to distinguish between aMCI patients and HCs [16]. On the other hand, the most used memory tests are based on learning and recalling two paragraphs or a list of words and often include a final step of facilitation with verbal cues or recognition among distractors that have to be administered 15-30 min later [17,18].…”