Performance on the RI-48 Cued Recall Test Best Predicts Conversion to Dementia at the 5- and 10-Year Follow-Ups

BACKGROUND: TheRI-48 cued recall test was devised to discriminate between healthy elderly and patients with mild cognitive impairment who are at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, no long-term follow-up studies have been conducted using this test. METHODS: We analyzed the predictive power of the RI-48 test for determining the patients who will convert to AD dementia within the decade after testing. During 10 years, we followed up 40 non-demented patients who attended our Memory Clinic and underwent complete neuropsychological evaluation including the RI-48. RESULTS: Of the 40 patients, 21 developed dementia (converters, CO) and 19 remained stable patients (SP). Of the tests performed at inclusion, only the RI-48 (p < 0.0001) and semantic fluency (p = 0.030) tests gave significantly different results between CO and SP. CONCLUSION: The RI-48 had the best overall diagnostic accuracy at 5- and at 10-year follow-ups.