Abstracts from the 18thAnnual Meeting 63 short forms of the WAIS-III in the evaluation of elderly patients. Implications for the use of the clinically derived version are presented as it represents a desirable mix of clin- ical rationale and sound psychometric properties. Rippeth, J., Lucas, J. A., Ivnik, R. J., Smith, G. E., Petersen, R. C., & Graff-Radford, N. R. Factors Associated with Progression to Probable AD in Patients with Mild Cognitive Im- pairment. The identification of patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) has provided in- vestigators a unique opportunity to examine a number of early clinical signs associated with the later diagnosis of probable AD. The diagnosis of MCI is made based on the presence of an isolated area of cognitive impairment (most often memory) in the context of otherwise normal cognitive abilities and no disruption of independent functional skills (Petersen et al., 1995). ApolipoproteinE (apoE) genotype and patterns of performances on memory tests have previously been shown to differentiate MCI patients who go on to develop dementia from those who do not (Petersen et al., 1995). The aim of the present study was to determine whether additional variables may improve prediction of progres- sion to probable AD among MCI patients. Participants included 51 patients diagnosed with MCI (mean age = 78; mean education = 13.8) at initial evaluation. Twenty-one participants were later diagnosed with AD at subsequent evaluation, while 30 continued to meet criteria for MCI. Groups were comparable on age, education, sex, distribution of apoE genotypes, and time to follow-up (mean interval = 3 years). During each evalu- ation, participants were administered a battery of neuropsychological measures, includ- ing the MMSE, WAIS-R, WMS-R, AVLT, BNT, and COWAT. A hierarchical discrimi- nant function analysis was performed using demographic variables, time to follow-up, apoE genotype, and neuropsychological measures as predictors. The neuropsychological measures included MMSE scores, the Learning and Retention factors of Mayo's Cogni- tive Factor Scales (MCFS; Smith et al., 1994), and an index of verbal-spatial cognitive asymmetry that has previously been used to identify cognitive subtypes of probable AD patients (V-S difference scores; Finton et al., 1998). One discriminant function (Chi- square~4)) = 16.19; p < .003) indicated that lower MMSE scores, lower MCFS Retention scores, and either equal V-S difference scores or a tendency toward higher verbal rela- tive to spatial scores were associated with a later diagnosis of probable AD. The discrim- inant function classified 76% of the sample correctly, with a higher classification rate for participants who remained MCI (87%), then those who became AD (62%). The current results notably do not suggest that apoE genotype is not as strongly associated with later diagnosis of AD in MCI patients as patterns of performances on memory and nonmem- ory tests, indicating that the entity of "MCI" requires continued characterization. Find- ings suggest that relative patterns of V-S performances are salient factors for delineating MCI patients who will develop AD versus those who persist in demonstrating only an isolated stable cognitive impairment. Rosselli, M., Ardila, A., Araujo, K., Weeks, V. A., Volk, L. L., & Caracciolo, V. The Aging of Language in Spanish-English Bilinguals. Even though our understanding of cognitive changes associated with age has signifi- cantly increased during the last years, the influence of bilingualism on the aging process is still unclear. Purpose: (1) To study the differences in language skills between healthy elderly monolingual and bilingual participants; (2) To explore intra individual differ- ences in the processing of the first and second language in elderly bilinguals. Method: Subjects: A sample, of fifteen 55- to 84-year-old Spanish-English bilinguals (7 males and 8 females with a mean education of 12.80 years, SD = 4.42) and forty five 50- to 85-year- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/acn/article-abstract/14/1/63/4288 by guest on 20 May 2020