Test Your Memory (TYM test): diagnostic evaluation of patients with non-Alzheimer dementias

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To validate the use of the Test Your Memory (TYM) test in dementias other than Alzheimer’s disease, and to compare the TYM test to two other short cognitive tests. METHODS: One hundred and fifty-seven patients with dementia other than typical Alzheimer’s disease were recruited from a specialist memory clinic. Patients completed the TYM test, the revised Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination (ACE-R) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), plus neurological examination, clinical diagnostics and multi-disciplinary team review. Their TYM scores were compared to age-matched controls and an Alzheimer’s disease cohort. RESULTS: Patients scored an average of 34.4/50 on the TYM test compared to 46.0/50 in age-matched controls. Using the threshold of 42/50, the TYM test detected 80% of non-Alzheimer dementias. The area under the ROC curve was 0.89 with a PPV of 0.80 and a NPV of 0.84. The TYM test performed better than the ACE-R (using the threshold of 83) which detected 69% of cases and the MMSE (using a threshold of 24) which detected only 27%. CONCLUSIONS: The TYM test is a useful test in the detection of non-Alzheimer dementia. The TYM test performs much better than the MMSE at detecting non-Alzheimer dementias.