title: The CERAD Neuropsychologic Battery Total Score and the progression of Alzheimer disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To establish the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) neuropsychologic battery as a valid measure of cognitive progression in Alzheimer disease (AD) by deriving annualized CERAD Total Change Scores and corresponding confidence intervals in AD and controls from which to define clinically meaningful change.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects included 383 normal control (NC) and 655 AD subjects with serial data from the CERAD registry database. Annualized CERAD Total Change Scores were derived and Reliable Change Indexes (RCIs) calculated to establish statistically reliable change values. CERAD Change Scores were compared with annualized change scores from the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR) Sum of Boxes, and Blessed Dementia Rating Scale (BDRS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  For the CERAD Total Score, the AD sample showed significantly greater decline than the NC sample over the 4-year interval, with AD subjects declining an average of 22.2 points compared with the NCs' improving an average 2.8 points from baseline to last visit [Group x Time interaction [F(4,1031)=246.08, P<0.001)]. By Visit 3, the majority of AD subjects (65.2%) showed a degree of cognitive decline that fell outside the RCI. CERAD Change Scores significantly correlated (P<0.001) with MMSE (r=-0.66), CDR (r=-0.42), and BDRS (r=-0.38) change scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results support the utility of the CERAD Total Score as a measure of AD progression and provide comparative data for annualized change in CERAD Total Score and other summary measures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA. Heidi.Rossetti@utsouthwestern.edu
authors.forename: Heidi C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Rossetti
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Munro Cullum
authors.forename: Linda S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Hynan
authors.forename: Laura H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Lacritz
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests