| Objective To explore the differences between patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and normal elderly individuals in olfactory function and the correlations of olfactory function and neuropsychology.Methods 52 patients with MCI and 40 normal persons were examined with the neuropsychological test and olfactory screening test respectively. The neuropsychological test included Mini Mental State Examination(MMSE), The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ). The olfactory screening test employed the Sniffin'Sticks Screening Test (SSST).Results MCI cases had significant differences compared with healthy elderly in MMSE, MoCA, FAQ, SSST (t=-16.69,-18.42,11.73,-13.83,P<0.001)。The former achieved significantly lower scores than the latter in the aspects of executive function, attention, calculation ability, language ability, delayed memory, orientation(t=-9.97,-9.21,-5.17,-10.96,-6.69, P<0.05-0.001), except the aspect of abstract thinking (P>0.05).SSST score of MCI cases was significantly correlated to neuropsychological score respectively (r=0.705,0.559,-0.659, P<0.001). except the normal controls (P>0.05).The ROC analysis showed that using a cut-off of 10.5 for the SSST score we obtained a sensitivity of 85.0% and a specificity of 88.0%.Conclusion MCI is a dangerous factor of Alzheimer's disease(AD). Olfactory screening test may be the sensitive indicator of the diagnosis of MCI. Susceptible neuropsychological marker binding the olfactory screening test, can raise diagnosis rate of MCI. Early detection and early intervention can delay or prevent the occurrence and development of dementia. |
