Total Scores of the CERAD Neuropsychological Assessment Battery: Validation for Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Patients With Diverse Etiologies

Objectives 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. Design, Setting, and Participants 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. Conclusion 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. 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. 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). 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. 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.