Card-placing test in amnestic mild cognitive impairment and its neural correlates.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: [corrected] We investigated anatomical correlates of the card-placing

test (CPT) in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). METHODS:

Fifteen aMCI patients underwent part A and part B of the CPT and FDG-PET. The CPT

scores and MMSE scores of 29 cognitively normal people were used for comparison.

Statistical parametric mapping (SPM) correlation analysis was used to extract the

regions whose changes in regional cerebral metabolism correlated significantly

with part A and B of the CPT with adjustment of age, education and sex of

patients. RESULTS: The aMCI patients had significantly lower MMSE scores (26.0

+/- 2.0 vs. 28.2 +/- 1.4, p < 0.001), CPT A (25.5 +/- 3.5 vs. 27.7 +/- 2.7, p =

0.026) and CPT B scores (16.3 +/- 4.4 vs. 19.7 +/- 3.7, p = 0.011) compared to

the normal population. The test scores of part B of the CPT correlated well with

hypometabolism of the posterior cingulate gyrus and precuneus. CONCLUSIONS: This

study suggests that the CPT B may reflect the functional status of the posterior

cingulate gyrus in patients with aMCI.