Comparing the performance  of elderly and alzheimer patients in the maze  test

Comparação do desempenho  de idosos e pacientes com Alzheimer no teste do labirinto

Marcelo  henrique alves ferreira  da  silva1, damião  ernane  de  souza1, luciana protásio de  melo2, tania

Fernandes campos3*

Abstract

Objective:  to compare  the performance of elderly and  alzheimer patients in the maze  test and  determine the cut-off point for cognitive screening. Methods: the study included 40  young, 40  elderly and  18  patients with alzheimer’s disease.  A maze  test was  applied  where  there were  6 different solution paths.  The data  were analyzed  by anova  and  roc curves. Results:  alzheimer patients spent more time (46843 ± 37926 ms) to execute the test than healthy young (5482 ± 2873 ms; p=  0.0001) and  elderly (17978 ± 13700; p=

0.0001). The analysis indicated 72% accuracy  of the maze execution time for young and elderly and 36% for healthy and  patients elderly with 75% sensibility and  61% specificity in 13575 ms. Conclusions:  according to the results maze test showed a good  accuracy  in cognitive screening and discriminated changes  caused  by aging and alzheimer’s disease.

Key words: aged, aging,  alzheimer disease,  cognition, executive function.