Millennium Magnetic Technologies

Document Cognitive Impairment

Home
Disruptive Press Releases
Detecting Pre-Alzheimer Changes
Document Pain
Thought / Dream Recording
Forensic Interrogation
Fibromyalgia Documentation
Rosetta Technologies
Intellectual Property
Corporate Management
Corporate Development Strategy
Order MRI Scans
Social Media
Contact Us

Mild Cognitive Impairment

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) refers to a perceivable decrease in thought processes, primarily memory, in individuals who are otherwise able to function in everyday activities. Persons with MCI can have difficulty remembering the names of people, performing calculations, navigating in a mall parking lot, and keeping track of common objects. Various levels of self-awareness of these handicaps may exist, and complex systems of compensation can be constructed.MCI can effect a persons ability to work, to function independently, and perform activities of daily living (ADL), particularly if the loss progresses.

 

The diagnosis of MCI relies on the fact that the individual is able to perform all their usual activities successfully, without more assistance from others than they previously needed. In this regard, MCI is different from dementia, where memory loss has progressed to such a point that normal independent function is impossible and the individual can no longer successfully manage their finances or provide for their own basic needs.Most (but not all) patients with MCI develop a progressive decline in their thinking abilities over time, and dementias are often the underlying cause. Occasionally, a patient may experience MCI as a result of toxin exposure in the workplace, trauma, or prescription medication. This can lead to a claim for damages, and the presence, degree, and prognosis of the MCI can then become an important component of the litigation development.

Article : Evaluation of Cognitive Impairment

For help providing a Visual, Graphic and Objective documentation of Cognitive Impairment, click here.

Common causes of MCI include:
      • Cerebral Ischemia - stroke
      • Post-Trauma - concussion
      • Medication - interferon, SSRI, hypnotics,  Ambien, NSAID, opioid analgesics, neuroleptic antipsychotics.
      • Degenerative illnesses - Alzheimer and other dementias
      • Hypoxic – decompression
      • Chronic Illnesses: SLE, CFS
      • Imprisonment, torture, sensory deprivation
      • Toxic chemical exposure
      • Infections – HIV, Hepatitis C, neurosyphilis, Lyme disease
      • Illicit drugs
      • Inflammatory or immune diseases: Lupus

MCI is typically subtle, but it is measurable. Patients have memory problems greater than normally expected for their age, but do not show other symptoms of dementia, such as impaired judgment or reasoning. The injury is thought to arise mostly in the medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus, but can also be widespread, involving a large portion of the neocortex and subcortical white matter. Measures of MCI include a detailed clinical evaluation by an experienced neuropsychologist, neuropsychologic testing, and specialty neuroimaging tests. The less subjective, and the more quantifiable the better.

Measurements of Cognitive Impairment


            There are a number of reasons why one needs to measure the degree of cognitive imparment. These include quantifying the current state, documenting the degree of ongoing loss, demonstrating the degree of physical or mental impairment, developing a treatment plan and giving a prognosis. Three principle areas of documentation in the workup of MCI are a thorough neuropsychiatric interview, written testing, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS).

The neuropsychiatric interview should always be performed by an experienced professional, and for medical legal cases, the examiners need to have a willingness to be deposed and the appropriate skill set for deposition

Written Neuropsychiatric Evaluation Tools – These are standard, and of relatively good quality, but certainly can be open to manipulation by the examinee.
     • Mini Mental Status Exam
     • Mattis Dementia Rating scale
     • Mindstreams™ (NeuroTrax Corp., NY)
     • ADAS-cog
The structural MRI provides anatomic information on the brain, and can be used to rule out alternative etiologies for cognitive impairment.

Issues in demonstrating MCI include establishing a normal state of cognition prior to injury, demonstrating objectively a cognitive impairment, and linking the MCI to the causative agent. It may be difficult to establish that a normal baseline existed, as injured individuals did not plan on an injury occurring, and did not take a convenient snapshot of brain function at various normal points in their lives. An estimate of cognitive function can be reconstructed, though, by an independent objective analysis of a persons job and school performance, samples of their writing, interviews with family and coworkers, and other forms of scrutiny of their lives pre-MCI.
                                                                                                    
Exposure of a normal brain to a drug or toxin can result in MCI, of varying intensity and persistence. Physicians are well-aware of the ability of chemical toxins, drugs, disease states and infections processes (some are listed above) to effect a patient’s cognitive performance

For help providing a visual, graphic and objective documentation of Cognitive Impairment for your cases, click here.