INTRODUCTION Temporal orientation is a component of most screening tests for diagnosing cognitive impairment. Correct temporal orientation involves activating both semantic information (concepts of the calendar date) and episodic information (remembering the current date). AIMS. The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic usefulness of a technique for evaluating temporal orientation, which was open-ended, and scoring the semantic and episodic information thus generated (0-10 points).
SUBJECTS AND METHODS A total of 24 subjects without impairment, 77 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 62 patients with dementia were evaluated by means of a 30-point mini-mental/mini-examination, semantic verbal fluency test, global deterioration scale, mini-mental-type temporal orientation and open-ended temporal orientation tests. The areas under the curve (aROC), sensitivity and specificity for dementia and cognitive impairment at any degree (MCI and dementia) were analysed.
RESULTS Open-ended temporal orientation presented a greater area under the curve (aROC: 0.90) for discrimination between patients with dementia and without dementia (MCI and without impairment) and an aROC of 0.83 for discrimination between patients with MCI or dementia and without impairment. For dementia, with a cut-off point equal to or below 6, sensitivity was 0.96 and specificity was 0.68, and for MCI with dementia, with a cut-off point equal to or below 7, sensitivity was 0.72 and specificity was 0.92.
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