Abstract
The Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R) is a highly sensitive and specific tool for the detection of mild dementia. It is particularly useful in differentiating Alzheimer’s disease from frontotemporal dementia. While the first version of the test battery has been adapted in many countries, its revised version has not, probably because it was published very recently.ObjectiveTo translate and adapt the ACE-R for use in the Brazilian population.MethodsTwo independent translations were made from English into Portuguese, followed by two independent back-translations. Few adaptations in accordance to the Brazilian culture and language were made and a first version of the instrument produced. This former version of the ACE-R was administered to 21 cognitively healthy subjects aged 60 years or more, with different educational levels.ResultsThe mean age of the studied sample of healthy elderly was 75.4 years (ranging from 60 to 89 years). Small additional modifications were necessary after the evaluation of the first ten subjects in order to improve comprehension of the test. The final Portuguese version of the ACE-R was produced and was found to be well understood by the remaining 11 subjects, taking an average of 15 minutes to be administered.ConclusionsThe Brazilian version of the ACE-R proved to be a promising cognitive instrument for testing both in research and clinical settings. With this regard, additional studies are currently being carried out in our unit in order to investigate the diagnostic properties of the ACE-R in our milieu.
Highlights
The Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R) is a highly sensitive and specific tool for the detection of mild dementia
In Brazil, the available instruments for brief cognitive evaluation of dementia, in particular for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) include:[1] the Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE),[2,3,4,5,6] the Test of Information-Memory-Concentration (IMC) of Blessed,[7] the CASI-S (Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument Short Form),[8,9,10] the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease (CERAD),[11,12] the Cambridge Examination for Mental Disorders of the Elderly (CAMDEX),[13,14] the NEUROPSI15,16 and the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale Cognition Component (ADAS-cog).[17,18]. Another tool used in our population is the Brief Cognitive Screening Battery (BCSB)[19,20,21,22] that consists of the presentation of a sheet of paper with 10 simple line drawings that evaluates naming, recall and recognition aspects of memory, using a semantic verbal fluency test and the clock drawing test as interference tasks.[23]
The ACE is a brief and reliable test battery that provides detection of early stages of dementia and is efficient in differentiating its subtypes, such as AD, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), progressive supranuclear palsy, and other forms of dementia associated with parkinsonism.[24]
Summary
The Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R) is a highly sensitive and specific tool for the detection of mild dementia. The ACE is a brief and reliable test battery that provides detection of early stages of dementia and is efficient in differentiating its subtypes, such as AD, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), progressive supranuclear palsy, and other forms of dementia associated with parkinsonism.[24] The test can be administered in 15 to 20 minutes and, together with the MMSE, provides a more thorough evaluation of six cognitive domains (orientation, attention, memory, verbal fluency, language and visuospatial ability). Each of these domains can be individually evaluated. The individual’s total score is still obtained by the addition of all subtests’ scores, ranging from 0 to 100
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