Validation and comparisons of the Amnesia Light and Brief Assessment (ALBA), the door Picture Naming and Immediate Recall (PICNIR) and the Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination III (ACE‐III) for detecting cognitive impairment

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundTwo unique very brief tests are easily administered and cognitively demanding. The Amnesia Light and Brief Assessment (abbreviated from the initial letters as ALBA) lasting 3 minutes and the door PICture Naming and Immediate Recall (PICNIR) lasting 4 minutes were validated and compared with the seven times longer Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination III (ACE‐III) (20‐30 minutes).MethodsThe ALBA, PICNIR and ACE‐III were administered to 155 elderly individuals in 2 groups comprising 40 patients with neurocognitive disorders according to DSM‐5 criteria and 116 normal elderly adults. The ALBA was evaluated using the memory ALBA score (MAS). The PICNIR was assessed using numbers of naming errors (NE) and correctly recalled picture names (PICR).ResultsAll the tests were significantly different between the two age‐ and education matched groups (ACE‐III: 73±11 vs. 96±4 points) and showed excellent accuracy as assessed by the area under the ROC Curve (AUC): 0.89 for MAS, 0.81 for NE, 0.96 for PICR and 0.98 for the ACE‐III. The AUCs of PICR and ACE‐III were comparable and larger than those of MAS and NE. The ACE‐III strongly correlated with MAS and PICR (0.8, R2 = 60% each) and NE (‐0.7, R2 = 48%) in the whole sample.ConclusionsThe innovative and efficient ALBA and PICNIR tests have high discriminant validity for cognitive impairment and high convergent validity with the ACE‐III. Moreover, they can reliably predict total ACE‐III scores. Brevity and simple administration and evaluation are major advantages of the ALBA and the PICNIR over much longer ACE‐III for busy clinical practice.Supported by grant COOPERATIO Neuroscience, Charles University, GAUK 268321 a SVV 260599 and grant NU20‐07‐00100.