The significance of the timely set diagnosis of the mild cognitive impairment in the work of the general practitioner

Abstract

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) represents condition between memory loss expected for age and education and initial forms of dementia. Early diagnosis is crucial on the primary health care level. General practitioner, using standard cognitive tests, needs to separate patients suffering from mild cognitive impairment and refer them to higher instances. It is important to recognize this condition at the initial stage, in order to take therapeutic measures before the condition evolves into dementia. Etiology of the condition remains unclear, although vascular, metabolic, traumatic or psychiatric causes are suspected. Clinical diagnosis is based on patient's history (with heteroanamnesis), battery of neuropsychological tests and neuroimaging techniques (magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), functional MRI (fMRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) is sometimes useful. Treatment includes several types of medication and cognitive rehabilitation. Still, there is still no treatment that could prevent transition from mild cognitive impairment to dementia. Nevertheless, since the world population is getting older, maximum efforts for solution of this problem is essential for the future. That makes the role of the primary healthcare doctors invaluable.

Keywords

• mild cognitive impairment
• dementia
• mini mental test