Comparison of verbal memory impairment rates in mild cognitive impairment

There are no accepted guidelines establishing the most sensitive neuropsychological methods to define memory impairment in mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We investigated whether similar impairment rates were observed between the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R) and Logical Memory (LM) in 90 patients with amnestic or amnestic plus MCI. On HVLT-R delayed recall, 80% of participants performed in the MCI range compared to only 32.2% on LM II. The same pattern was seen for both amnestic and amnestic plus subtypes. Individuals impaired on HVLT-R delayed recall performed significantly worse on LM first recall and on delayed recall of LM Story A than those not impaired. MCI patients with executive dysfunction performed significantly worse than patients with no executive impairment on both LM I and HVLT-R Total Learning, but not for delayed recall of either measure. Future studies can address the longitudinal course of impairment on these measures.