The accuracy of short clinical rating scales in neuropathologically diagnosed dementia

The overall aim was to evaluate to what extent the diagnosis of dementia subtypes, obtained by three clinical rating scales, concurred with postmortem neuropathologic (NP) diagnosis of Alzheimer disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), vascular dementia (VaD) and mixed AD/VaD.

A prospective longitudinal clinical work-up with postmortem NP examination.

Two hundred nine patients with dementia referred for clinical evaluation and follow-up.

The diagnostic scores in a set of three short clinical rating scales for AD, FTD, and VaD were evaluated against NP diagnoses.

The sensitivity and specificity of the AD scale were 0.80 and 0.87, respectively, of the FTD scale 0.93 and 0.92, respectively, and of the Hachinski Ischemic Score (HIS, VaD diagnosis) 0.69 and 0.92, respectively. Cases with mixed AD/VaD generally presented a combination of high AD and ischemic scores. A preferred cutoff score of six was identified for both the AD and FTD scales.

All three clinical rating scales showed a high sensitivity and specificity, in close agreement with final NP diagnosis-for the HIS a moderate sensitivity. These scales may thus be considered good diagnostic tools and are recommended for clinical and research center settings.