The French Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination Is Effective in Detecting Dementia in a French-Speaking Population

• Published in: Dementia and geriatric cognitive disorders 2005-01, Vol.19 (1), p.15-17
• Main Authors: Bier, J.-C., Donckels, V., van Eyll, E., Claes, T., Slama, H., Fery, P., Vokaer, M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer Disease - diagnosis; Biological and medical sciences; Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases; Dementia; Diagnosis, Differential; Disorders of higher nervous function. Focal brain diseases. Central vestibular syndrome and deafness. Brain stem syndromes; Female; France; Humans; Language; Male; Medical sciences; Mental Status Schedule - statistics & numerical data; Middle Aged; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Neurology; Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data; Original Research Article; Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data; Reproducibility of Results; Vascular diseases and vascular malformations of the nervous system
• ISSN: 1420-8008; 1421-9824
• DOI: 10.1159/000080965

We evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of our French version of Addenbrooke’s cognitive examination (ACE) to detect dementia in our patient population. One hundred and fifty-eight cases were included in the study. In our patient series, the sensitivity for diagnosing dementia with a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of ≤24/30 was 48.5%, the sensitivity of an MMSE score of ≤27/30 was 82.5% with a specificity of 72.1%, the sensitivity of an ACE score of ≤83/100 was 86.6% with a specificity of 70.5% and the sensitivity of an ACE score of ≤88/100 was 97.9% with a specificity of 59%. We conclude that the French version of the ACE is a very accurate test for the detection of dementia, and should be widely used in clinical practice.