Beyond Screening: Can the Mini-Mental State Examination be Used as an Exclusion Tool in a Memory Clinic?

Diagnostics

Xin Xu²  Eddie Chong²  Saima Hilal²  Mohammad Kamran Ikram²  Narayanaswamy Venketasubramanian²  Christopher Chen¹ 

[1] Memory, Aging and Cognition Center, Department of Pharmacology, National University Health System, Singapore 117600, Singapore;

关键词: dementia;    cognitive assessment;    Mini-Mental State Examination;    memory clinic;   

DOI  :  10.3390/diagnostics5040475

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

This study explores whether the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) could reliably exclude definite dementia and dementia-free cases from requiring more extensive neuropsychological investigations in memory clinic settings in Singapore. Patients with memory complaints referred for possible dementia underwent the MMSE, followed by standardized neuropsychological and clinical assessments which led to a consensus diagnosis. MMSE cut-off points were derived stratified for education (less and equal/above primary level). Results show that after education stratification, using an optimal Positive Likelihood Ratio (PLR) and optimal Negative Likelihood Ratio (NLR), a higher percentage of patients were correctly identified as having dementia or dementia-free, with minimal misclassification rate. The finding suggests the MMSE can be used to exclude patients not requiring full neuropsychological assessments in a memory clinic.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.