Application of Montreal Cognitive Assessment in screening mild cognitive impairment in elderly patients

Objective To assess the value of Montreal Cognitive Assessment(MoCA)in screening mild cognitive impairment(MCI)in elderly patients.Methods Thirty-two elderly patients with MCI and 50 healthy elderly subjects were examined with neuropsychological tests using Mini-mental State Examination(MMSE)and the MoCA. Results With a cut-off score of 26,the MoCA had a sensitivity of 96.87%and specificity of 76%for detecting MCI,and the sensitivity and specificity of MMSE were 56.25%and 96%,respectively.For the MoCA sub-items,the elderly patients with MCI had significantly lower scores than the healthy elderly in all the cognitive function measures (P＜0.05)except for abstraction and fixed orientation.In MMSE sub-items,significant differgnces were found between the two groups in only calculation/attention and delayed recall(P＜0.05).Conclusions The MoCA is a highiy sensitive scale for screening MCI in elderly patients,which allows comprehensive assessment of the cognitive function of MCI patients and is applicable in detecting MCI in patients with normal MMSE results. Key words: Mild cognitive impairment; Montreal cognitive assessment