The cognitive subscale of the "Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale" in a Brazilian sample.

The cognitive subscale of the "Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale" (ADAS-Cog) is widely used for the evaluation of dementia and is very popular in dementia drug trials because of the characteristics of the scale. The objective of the present study was to adapt the ADAS-Cog for use for the Brazilian population. A major problem is that education is variable, a fact that may influence performance in cognitive evaluation. This study was conducted on a control group (CG) of 96 subjects (25 males and 71 females aged 68 +/- 8.6 years) and on 44 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (19 males and 25 females aged 72 +/- 6.4 years) with mild dementia (Clinical Dementia Rating score 1). For statistical analysis groups were divided into three educational levels: I, 0-4 years of schooling (65 CG/20 AD); II, 5-11 years of schooling (19 CG/7 AD), and III, 12 or more years of schooling (12 CG/17 AD). The battery was applied according to original instructions. Total mean score for CG and AD was 10.9 and 22.9 for level I, 7.8 and 22.4 for level II, and 6.2 and 15.4 for level III, respectively. These results indicate that our version of the ADAS-Cog is useful to identify mild dementia, though there may be an overlapping when comparing high education demented with low education non-demented subjects.

Applicability of the CERAD neuropsychological battery to Brazilian elderly.

There is a limited choice of psychometric tests for Portuguese speaking people which have been evaluated in well defined groups. A Portuguese version of CERAD neuropsychological battery was applied to a control group of healthy elderly (CG) (mean age 75.1 years/ education 7.9 years), 31 Alzheimer disease (AD) patients classified by clinical dementia rating (CDR) as CDR1 (71.4/ 9.0) and 12 AD patients CDR 2 (74.1/ 9.3). Cut-off points were: verbal fluency-11; modified Boston naming-12; Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE) -26; word list memory-13; constructional praxis-9; word recall-3, word recognition-7; praxis recall-4. There was a significant difference between CG and AD-CDR1 (p<0.0001) for all tests. There was a less significant difference for constructional praxis and no difference for Boston naming. Comparison between AD-CDR1 and AD-CDR2 showed difference only for MMSE, verbal fluency, and Boston naming. The performance of CG was similar to that of a US control sample with comparable education level. These results indicate that this adaptation may be useful for the diagnosis of mild dementia but further studies are needed to define cut-offs for illiterates/low education people.

The cognitive subscale of the "Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale" in a Brazilian sample

The cognitive subscale of the "Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale" (ADAS-Cog) is widely used for the evaluation of dementia and is very popular in dementia drug trials because of the characteristics of the scale. The objective of the present study was to adapt the ADAS-Cog for use for the Brazilian population. A major problem is that education is variable, a fact that may influence performance in cognitive evaluation. This study was conducted on a control group (CG) of 96 subjects (25 males and 71 females aged 68 + or - 8.6 years) and on 44 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (19 males and 25 females aged 72 + or - 6.4 years) with mild dementia (Clinical Dementia Rating score 1). For statistical analysis groups were divided into three educational levels: I, 0-4 years of schooling (65 CG/20 AD); II, 5-11 years of schooling (19 CG/7 AD), and III, 12 or more years of schooling (12 CG/17 AD). The battery was applied according to original instructions. Total mean score for CG and AD was 10.9 and 22.9 for level I, 7.8 and 22.4 for level II, and 6.2 and 15.4 for level III, respectively. These results indicate that our version of the ADAS-Cog is useful to identify mild dementia, though there may be an overlapping when comparing high education demented with low education non-demented subjects