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Evaluation of hand motor measures and plasma NfL shows promising results for classifying dementia and cognitive impairment.
Abstract BACKGROUNDEmerging research suggests hand motor biomarkers help identify dementia, but it is unclear which test is best, or whether combining with a blood-based biomarker may further improve classification. We evaluated combinations of hand motor measures and plasma neurofilament light (NfL) to distinguish dementia, Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Subjective Cognitive Impairment (SCI) from cognitively-healthy controls (HC).METHODSThree-hundred and seventeen participants (71 dementia, 105 MCI, 59 SCI, 82 HC) completed key-tapping, finger-to-thumb-tapping, grip strength, and NfL analysis in a cognitive clinic. Age-, sex-, and education-adjusted Receiver-Operating-Characteristic curves measured classification accuracy.RESULTSLower-frequency and higher-variability of key-tapping associated with weaker grip strength and higher NfL levels. Models combining key-tapping and NfL best classified dementia (97%), MCI (97%) and SCI (81%) from HC, outperforming individual measures.CONCLUSIONIntegration of a brief hand motor test and NfL could aid with distinguishing cognitive diagnosis groups. Findings support multimodal approaches for early dementia detection.
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Rudd et al. (2025) studied this question.
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