Diagnostic journey of MCI/AD dementia patients, and importance of biomarkers testing: a real-world survey

<h3>Objective</h3> Describe the diagnostic journey of mild cognitive impairment (MCI)/Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia patients in Europe and specialists’ perceptions on the biomarker testing importance. <h3>Methods</h3> Data were drawn from the Adelphi Real-World AD Disease Specific Programme™, a cross-sectional survey of primary care physicians (PCPs) and specialists (neurologists/geriatric psychiatrists/geriatricians/psychiatrists/neuropsychiatrists) between December 2022–June 2023. Full data were reported for Germany/Italy/Spain, and interim data for France/UK. Analyses were descriptive, summarised as percentages or median [interquartile range (IQR)]. <h3>Results</h3> Data on 1073 MCI and 1880 AD dementia patients were reported. The median time from first PCP consultation to specialist diagnosis was 23[IQR:12,48] weeks. Specialist-diagnosed patients had their diagnosis primarily aided by behavioural/cognitive tests (94%) and feedback from patients/relatives (89%). Despite 74% of specialists reporting that biomarker testing will be ‘important’/’extremely important’ for future identification of AD in MCI patients, few specialist-diagnosed patients underwent AD biomarker testing including cerebrospinal fluid (13%) and amyloid positron emission tomography scan (5%). 25% of specialist- diagnosed patients experienced a delay due to lack of specialised diagnostic services access. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Improved access to specialised diagnostic services accelerated diagnosis of MCI/AD patients and early management. Despite the perceived future importance of biomarkers, few patients undergo such testing today. <h3>Disclosure</h3> Disclosed at ISPOR-Europe-2023.