Total scores of the CERAD neuropsychological assessment battery: validation for mild cognitive impairment and dementia patients with diverse etiologies.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to validate the two total scores (TS-I and TS-II) of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer Disease neuropsychological battery (CERAD-NP) for a large elderly population including mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia patients with various etiologic backgrounds. The authors also investigated whether the addition of frontal-executive function score can improve the discrimination accuracy of the total scores for dementia and MCI.


METHODS
One thousand three hundred thirty-six normal comparison (NC), 583 dementia (420 AD, 111 non-AD dementia, and 52 mixed AD with non-AD dementia), and 250 MCI (223 amnestic and 27 nonamnestic MCI) individuals living in the community were included (all aged 60 years and older).


RESULTS
Both TS-I and TS-II were highly correlated with other global cognitive and functional scales. Both total scores showed, though modest, superior NC versus MCI discrimination ability to Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Their discrimination ability for NC versus dementia was excellent and significantly better, especially in discriminating very mild dementia, than MMSE. The addition of frontal-executive test score to TS-I or TS-II did not make a significant improvement in dementia or MCI discrimination ability. Both of them also showed higher test-retest and interrater reliability than MMSE or any individual neuropsychological tests in the CERAD-NP.


CONCLUSIONS
These results strongly support the validity and usefulness of CERAD total scores for early detection and progression monitoring of MCI and dementia in clinical and research settings.
Seo
Eun Hyun
EH
Interdisciplinary Program for Cognitive Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
Lee
Dong Young
DY
Lee
Jung Hie
JH
Choo
Il Han
IH
Kim
Jee Wook
JW
Kim
Shin Gyeom
SG
Park
Shin Young
SY
Shin
Ji Hye
JH
Do
Yeon Ja
YJ
Yoon
Jong Choul
JC
Jhoo
Jin Hyeong
JH
Kim
Ki Woong
KW
Woo
Jong Inn
JI
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D003071:Cognition; D057186:Comparative Effectiveness Research; D018450:Disease Progression; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007723:Korea; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index