title: Differentiating Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia: receiver operator characteristic curve analysis of four rating scales.
abstract: Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia are two of the most common types of degenerative dementia. In conjunction with a complete neuropsychiatric examination, the Executive Interview, Mini-Mental State Exam, Alzheimer's Disease Scale, Pick's Disease Scale and the Informant-Based Questionnaire have been used to distinguish between these two disorders on clinical grounds. In a review of two studies, scores from these rating scales are subjected to receiver operator characteristic curve analysis to determine the cut-off value for each scale which yields the highest sensitivity and specificity with regard to differentiating between Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. Finally, the Informant-Based Questionnaire is discussed and compared to each rating scale to demonstrate the important features and limitations of each.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, Rochester, Minn, USA.
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Hooten
authors.forename: C G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Lyketsos
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005625:Frontal Lobe; D006801:Humans; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012372:ROC Curve; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013702:Temporal Lobe