title: Do NIA-AA criteria distinguish Alzheimer's disease from frontotemporal dementia?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Clinical criteria are important for improving diagnostic accuracy and ensuring comparability of patient cohorts in research studies.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim was to assess the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) criteria for Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia in AD and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD).
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred twelve consecutive patients with pathologically confirmed AD or FTLD who were clinically assessed in a specialist cognitive unit were identified. Fifty-five patients were excluded predominantly because of insufficient clinical information. Anonymized clinical data were rated against the NIA-AA criteria by raters who were blinded to clinical and pathologic diagnosis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The NIA-AA AD dementia criteria had a sensitivity of 65.6% for probable and 79.5% for possible AD and a specificity of 95.2% and 94.0% for probable and possible, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In patients with FTLD and predominantly early-onset AD, the NIA-AA AD dementia criteria have high specificity but lower sensitivity. The high specificity is due to the broad exclusion criteria.
authors.affiliation: Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Cerebral Function Unit, Greater Manchester Neuroscience Centre, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK; Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: Jennifer M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.affiliation: Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Cerebral Function Unit, Greater Manchester Neuroscience Centre, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK.
authors.forename: Jennifer C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Cerebral Function Unit, Greater Manchester Neuroscience Centre, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK.
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gall
authors.affiliation: Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Cerebral Function Unit, Greater Manchester Neuroscience Centre, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK; Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: Anna M T
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.affiliation: Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Cerebral Function Unit, Greater Manchester Neuroscience Centre, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK; Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Neary
authors.affiliation: Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Cerebral Function Unit, Greater Manchester Neuroscience Centre, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: du Plessis
authors.affiliation: Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Cerebral Function Unit, Greater Manchester Neuroscience Centre, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK.
authors.forename: Piyali
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pal
authors.affiliation: Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Cerebral Function Unit, Greater Manchester Neuroscience Centre, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK; Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: David M A
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.affiliation: Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Cerebral Function Unit, Greater Manchester Neuroscience Centre, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK; Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: Julie S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Snowden
authors.affiliation: Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Cerebral Function Unit, Greater Manchester Neuroscience Centre, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK; Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. Electronic address: matthew.jones@manchester.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D057180:Frontotemporal Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D054561:National Institute on Aging (U.S.); D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014481:United States
keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Criteria; Dementia; Diagnosis; Neuropathology; Pathology