Brazilian Version of the Addenbrooke Cognitive Examination-revised in the Diagnosis of Mild Alzheimer Disease

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the accuracy of the Brazilian version of the Addenbrooke Cognitive Examination-revised (ACE-R) in the diagnosis of mild Alzheimer disease (AD). BACKGROUND: The ACE-R is an accurate and brief cognitive battery for the detection of mild dementia, especially for the discrimination between AD and frontotemporal dementia. METHODS: The battery was administered to 31 patients with mild AD and 62 age-matched and education-matched cognitively healthy controls. Both groups were selected using the Dementia Rating Scale and were submitted to the ACE-R. Depression was ruled out in both groups by the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia. The performance of patients and controls in the ACE-R was compared and receiver operator characteristic curve analysis was undertaken to ascertain the accuracy of the instrument for the diagnosis of mild AD. RESULTS: The mean scores at the ACE-R were 63.10+/-10.22 points for patients with AD and 83.63+/-7.90 points for controls. The cut-off score <78 yielded high diagnostic accuracy (receiver operator characteristic area under the curve=0.947), with 100% sensitivity, 82.26% specificity, 73.8% positive predictive value, and 100% negative predictive value. CONCLUSIONS: The Brazilian version of the ACE-R displayed high diagnostic accuracy for the identification of mild AD in the studied sample.