title: Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA): validation study for frontotemporal dementia.
abstract: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a brief instrument developed for the screening of milder forms of cognitive impairment, having surpassed the well-known limitations of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). The aim of the present study was to validate the MoCA as a cognitive screening test for behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (bv-FTD) by examining its psychometric properties and diagnostic accuracy. Three matched subgroups of participants were considered: bv-FTD (n = 50), Alzheimer disease (n = 50), and a control group of healthy adults (n = 50). Compared with the MMSE, the MoCA demonstrated consistently superior psychometric properties and discriminant capacity, providing comprehensive information about the patients' cognitive profiles. The diagnostic accuracy of MoCA for bv-FTD was extremely high (area under the curve AUC [MoCA] = 0.934, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.866-.974; AUC [MMSE] = 0.772, 95% CI = 0.677-0.850). With a cutoff below 17 points, the MoCA results for sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and classification accuracy were significantly superior to those of the MMSE. The MoCA is a sensitive and accurate instrument for screening the patients with bv-FTD and represents a better option than the MMSE.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3001-802 Coimbra, Portugal. sandrafreitas0209@gmail.com
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Freitas
authors.forename: Mário R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Simões
authors.forename: Lara
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Duro
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Santana
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D057180:Frontotemporal Dementia / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity