Using the Modified Taylor Complex Figure-Recognition Trial (MTCF-RT) to differentiate amnestic patients with Alzheimer's disease from patients with memory deficits due to Parkinson's disease or subcortical ischemic vascular dementia.

OBJECTIVE

The Modified Taylor Complex Figure-Recognition Trial (MTCF-RT) is a visual recognition memory measure that consists of a recognition trial to be administered after the copy and the delayed reproduction of the Modified Taylor Complex Figure Test. The aim of this study was to validate the MTCF-RT in differentiating amnestic patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) from patients with memory deficits due to Parkinson's disease (PD) or subcortical ischemic vascular dementia (SIVD).

METHOD: The MTCF-RT was administered to 25 amnestic patients with AD and 25 patients with memory deficits due to SIVD (n = 18) or PD (n = 7). Additionally, the recognition trial was administered to 40 neurologically unimpaired individuals. All patients were tested on a brief neuropsychological battery, and their magnetic resonance scans were assessed for medial temporal lobe atrophy.

RESULTS

MTCF-RT performance was significantly lower in the group of amnestic patients with AD than in the group of amnestic patients with non-AD disorders, whereas healthy subjects performed significantly better than the two experimental groups. The MTCF-RT allowed identifying amnestic patients with AD with 92% sensitivity and 96% specificity using a cutoff of ≤7.358, showing a higher discriminant power with respect to other long-term memory measures. Finally, MTCF-RT scores showed a high negative correlation with medial temporal lobe atrophy and a positive correlation with other long-term memory measures.

CONCLUSIONS

MTCF-RT could be a useful tool, as part of a larger neuropsychological battery, for discriminating patients with AD from those with memory deficits due to PD or SIVD. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).