Innovative and original Czech cognitive tests Amnesia Light and Brief Assessment and Picture naming and immediate recall and examination tools in the diagnosis of cognitive disorders and dementias
Abstract
Older people with memory impairment are more frequent with an increasing proportion of the aging population. Memory impairment in old age can be the first symptom of Alzheimer's disease, but also many other diseases.
Two innovative and original Czech tests are used for a quick and easy memory examination - Amnesia Light and Brief Assessment (ALBA) and Picture naming and immediate recall (PICNIR) which were developed right in the Czech Republic. The ALBA test consists of repeating a sentence of six words, performing and then recall of six gestures, and finally recall of the words of the original sentence.
In the PICNIR test, the first task is to write down names of 20 black and white pictures and then to recall and write as many picture names as possible in one minute. Both ALBA and PICNIR tests are easy to perform and evaluate, but also challenging for the subject, are very short, lasting up to five minutes, and are used to detect mild cognitive deficits, especially short-term episodic or long-term semantic memory.
Other tests include verbal fluency of animals in half a minute, the Clock Drawing Test and its extended variant with learning and recall of three words as the Mini-Cog test. When a cognitive deficit is proven, it is necessary to determine its more precise cause using several auxiliary examination methods which are explained.
Thus it is possible to establish a correct diagnosis with such a comprehensive approach.