Practical approach for identifying a forgetful patient using cognitive tests Amnesia Light and Brief Assessment (ALBA) and Picture naming and immediate recall (PICNIR) for a very quick evaluation of not only memory

Overview

Memory impairment is a frequent symptom of various diseases not only of the brain, but also of conditions outside of it, e.g., Alzheimer’s disease or Covid-19 disease during the current pandemic. The shorter memory examination takes, the more likely it is to be performed in clinical practice. The widely-used Mini-Mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Test usually take 10–15 minutes. However, permission from copyright owners must be obtained for their use with a fee. Therefore, two innovative and original Czech tests – the Amnesia Light and Brief Assessment (ALBA) and the Picture naming and immediate recall (PICNIR) developed in the Czech Republic are an option. Both the ALBA and PICNIR tests are easy to perform and evaluate, but challenging for the evaluated person at the same time, they are very brief lasting up to five minutes and are used to detect mild cognitive deficits, especially short-term episodic or longterm semantic memory, aphasia and dysgraphia. In addition, they can indirectly show the structure of thinking and reveal some elements of behavioral symptoms. 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 take only 6–8 minutes together. They are used by various groups of professionals – doctors, pharmacists, speech therapists, psychologists, social workers and others. As older people with memory impairment are more frequent with an increasing proportion of the aging population, evaluations using the ALBA and PICNIR tests will also bring a lot of useful information in the geriatric population. Early recognition of cognitive dysfunction will allow early diagnosis, adequate treatment and prevention of further deterioration, which can improve the management of patients with various diseases and the quality of life not only of patients with cognitive disorders and dementia, but also of their family members and loved ones.

Keywords:

dementia – screening – Cognitive impairment – Alzheimer’s disease – ALBA: Amnesia Light and Brief Assessment – PICNIR: Picture naming and immediate recall