Development of the Colorado posterior cortical questionnaire within an Alzheimer's disease study cohort. Issue 3 (16th March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Holden, Samantha K.; Pelak, Victoria S.; Sooy, Trevor; Heffernan, Kate S.; McConnell, Brice V.; Pressman, Peter S.; Bettcher, Brianne M.
• Is Part Of: Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology. Volume 44:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 226
• Page End: 236
• Publication Date: 2022-03-16
• Subjects: Cognitive impairment -- visuospatial -- screening -- posterior cortical atrophy -- Alzheimer's disease; Neuropsychology -- Periodicals; Psychophysiology -- Periodicals; Neurosciences -- Periodicals; Psychophysiology -- Periodicals; Societies, Medical -- Periodicals; 616.89
• DOI: 10.1080/13803395.2022.2105820
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1380-3395

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Introduction: Non-amnestic presentations of neurodegenerative dementias, including posterior- and visual-predominant cognitive forms, are under-recognized. Specific screening measures for posterior cortical symptoms could allow for earlier, more accurate diagnosis and directed treatment. Methods: Based on clinical experience with posterior cortical atrophy evaluations, high-yield screening questions were collected and organized into a 15-item self-report questionnaire, titled the Colorado Posterior Cortical Questionnaire (CPC-Q). The CPC-Q was then piloted within a longitudinal cohort of cognitive aging, including 63 older adults, including healthy older adults (n = 33) and adults with either amnestic Alzheimer's disease (n = 21) or posterior cortical atrophy (PCA, n = 9). Results: The CPC-Q demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties (internal consistency, α = 0.89; mean item-total correlation = 0.62), correlated strongly with visuospatial measures on cognitive testing (p < 0.001), and could distinguish PCA from non-PCA groups (p < 0.001; AUC 0.95 (95% CI 0.88, 1.0)). Conclusions: The CPC-Q captured posterior cortical symptoms in older adults, using a gold standard of expert consensus PCA diagnosis. Future studies will validate the CPC-Q in a larger cohort, with recruitment of additional PCA participants, to evaluate its convergent and discriminant validity more thoroughly. As a short, self-report tool, the CPC-Q demonstrates potential to improve detection of non-amnestic neurodegenerative dementias in the clinical setting.