Mild cognitive impairment
| Mild cognitive impairment | |
|---|---|
| Classification and external resources | |
| Specialty | psychiatry |
| ICD-10 | F06.7 |
| ICD-9-CM | 331.83 |
| Patient UK | Mild cognitive impairment |
| MeSH | D060825 |
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI, also known as incipient dementia, or isolated memory impairment) is a brain function syndrome involving the onset and evolution of cognitive impairments beyond those expected based on the age and education of the individual, but which are not significant enough to interfere with their daily activities. It may occur as a transitional stage between normal aging and dementia. Although MCI can present with a variety of symptoms, when memory loss is the predominant symptom it is termed "amnestic MCI" and is frequently seen as a prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease. Studies suggest that these individuals tend to progress to probable Alzheimer's disease at a rate of approximately 10% to 15% per year.
Additionally, when individuals have impairments in domains other than memory it is classified as nonamnestic single- or multiple-domain MCI and these individuals are believed to be more likely to convert to other dementias (e.g., dementia with Lewy bodies). However, some instances of MCI may simply remain stable over time or even remit. Causation of the syndrome in and of itself remains unknown, as therefore do prevention and treatment.
According to some experts, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may be caused due to alteration in the brain triggered during early stages of Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia. However, exact causes of MCI are still unknown.
But, risk factors of both dementia and MCI are considered to be the same. They are aging, genetic (heredity) cause of suffering from Alzheimer’s or other dementia, and risk of cardiovascular disease.
The diagnosis of MCI requires considerable clinical judgement, and as such a comprehensive clinical assessment including clinical observation, neuroimaging,blood tests and neuropsychological testing are best in order to rule out an alternate diagnosis. MCI is diagnosed when there is:
There is evidence suggesting that although amnestic MCI patients may not meet neuropathologic criteria for Alzheimer's disease, patients may be in a transitional stage of evolving Alzheimer's disease; patients in this hypothesized transitional stage demonstrated diffuse amyloid in the neocortex and frequent neurofibrillary tangles in the medial temporal lobe.
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