Assessing the Utility of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment in Screening for Cognitive Impairment in Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

OBJECTIVE: Screening for cognitive impairment (CI) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) relies on the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) neuropsychological battery (NB). By studying the concurrent criterion validity, our goal was to assess the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) as a screening tool for CI compared to the ACR-NB and to evaluate the added value of the MoCA to the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM). METHODS: A total of 285 adult SLE patients were administered the ACR-NB, MoCA, and ANAM. For the ACR-NB, patients were classified as having CI if there was a Z score of ≤-1.5 in ≥2 domains. The area under the curve (AUC) and sensitivities/specificities were determined. A discriminant function analysis was applied to assess the ability of the MoCA to differentiate between CI, undetermined CI, and non-CI patients. RESULTS: CI was not accurately identified by the MoCA compared to the ACR-NB (AUC of 0.66). Sensitivity and specificity were poor at 50% and 69%, respectively, for the cutoff of 26, and 80% and 45%, respectively, for the cutoff of 28. The MoCA had a low ability to identify CI status. The addition of the MoCA to the ANAM led to improvement on the AUC by only 2.5%. CONCLUSION: The MoCA does not have adequate concurrent criterion validity to accurately identify CI in patients with SLE. The low specificity of the MoCA may lead to overdiagnosis and concern among patients. Adding the MoCA to the ANAM does not substantially improve the accuracy of the ANAM. These results do not support using the MoCA as a screening tool for CI in patients with SLE.

Assessment of cardiovascular risk tools as predictors of cardiovascular disease events in systemic lupus erythematosus.

BACKGROUND: SLE is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study aimed to determine which among QRISK2, QRISK3, Framingham Risk Score (FRS), modified Framingham Risk Score (mFRS) and SLE Cardiovascular Risk Equation (SLECRE) best predicts CVD. METHODS: This is a single-centre analysis on 1887 patients with SLE followed prospectively according to a standard protocol. Tools' scores were evaluated against CVD development at/within 10 years for patients with CVD and without CVD. For patients with CVD, the index date for risk score calculation was chosen as close to 10 years prior to CVD event. For patients without CVD, risk scores were calculated as close to 10 years prior to the most recent clinic appointment. Proportions of low-risk (<10%), intermediate-risk (10%-20%) and high-risk (>20%) patients for developing CVD according to each tool were determined, allowing sensitivity, specificity, positive/negative predictive value and concordance (c) statistics analysis. RESULTS: Among 1887 patients, 232 CVD events occurred. QRISK2 and FRS, and QRISK3 and mFRS, performed similarly. SLECRE classified the highest number of patients as intermediate and high risk. Sensitivities and specificities were 19% and 93% for QRISK2, 22% and 93% for FRS, 46% and 83% for mFRS, 47% and 78% for QRISK3, and 61% and 64% for SLECRE. Tools were similar in negative predictive value, ranging from 89% (QRISK2) to 92% (SLECRE). FRS and mFRS had the greatest c-statistics (0.73), while QRISK3 and SLECRE had the lowest (0. 67). CONCLUSION: mFRS was superior to FRS and was not outperformed by the QRISK tools. SLECRE had the highest sensitivity but the lowest specificity. mFRS is an SLE-adjusted practical tool with a simple, intuitive scoring system reasonably appropriate for ambulatory settings, with more research needed to develop more accurate CVD risk prediction tools in this population.

Validity Evidence for the Use of Automated Neuropsychologic Assessment Metrics As a Screening Tool for Cognitive Impairment in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

OBJECTIVE: Screening for cognitive impairment in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) conventionally relies on the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) neuropsychologic battery (NB), which is not universally available. To develop a more accessible screening approach, we assessed validity of the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM). Using the ACR NB as the gold standard for cognitive impairment classification, the objectives were 1) to measure overall discriminative validity of the ANAM for cognitive impairment versus no cognitive impairment, 2) to identify ANAM subtests and scores that best differentiate patients with cognitive impairment from those with no cognitive impairment, and 3) to derive ANAM composite indices and cutoffs. METHODS: A total of 211 consecutive adult patients, female and male, with SLE were administered the ANAM and ACR NB. 1) For overall discriminative validity of the ANAM, we compared patients with cognitive impairment versus those with no cognitive impairment on 4 scores. 2) Six ANAM models using different scores were developed, and the most discriminatory subtests were selected using logistic regression analyses. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was calculated to establish ANAM validity against the ACR NB. 3) ANAM composite indices and cutoffs were derived for the best models, and sensitivities and specificities were calculated. RESULTS: Patients with no cognitive impairment performed better on most ANAM subtests, supporting ANAM's discriminative validity. Cognitive impairment could be accurately identified by selected ANAM subtests with top models, demonstrating excellent AUCs of 81% and 84%. Derived composite indices and cutoffs demonstrated sensitivity of 78-80% and specificity of 70%. CONCLUSION: This study provides support for ANAM's discriminative validity for cognitive impairment and utility for cognitive screening in adult SLE. Derived composite indices and cutoffs enhance clinical applicability.