Premium
Do NIA‐AA criteria distinguish Alzheimer's disease from frontotemporal dementia?
Author(s) -
Harris Jennifer M.,
Thompson Jennifer C.,
Gall Claire,
Richardson Anna M.T.,
Neary David,
Plessis Daniel,
Pal Piyali,
Mann David M.A.,
Snowden Julie S.,
Jones Matthew
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2014.04.516
Subject(s) - frontotemporal lobar degeneration , dementia , frontotemporal dementia , medicine , disease , cognitive impairment , alzheimer's disease , pediatrics
Background Clinical criteria are important for improving diagnostic accuracy and ensuring comparability of patient cohorts in research studies. Objective The aim was to assess the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer's Association (NIA‐AA) criteria for Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia in AD and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). Methods Two hundred twelve consecutive patients with pathologically confirmed AD or FTLD who were clinically assessed in a specialist cognitive unit were identified. Fifty‐five patients were excluded predominantly because of insufficient clinical information. Anonymized clinical data were rated against the NIA‐AA criteria by raters who were blinded to clinical and pathologic diagnosis. Results The NIA‐AA AD dementia criteria had a sensitivity of 65.6% for probable and 79.5% for possible AD and a specificity of 95.2% and 94.0% for probable and possible, respectively. Conclusion In patients with FTLD and predominantly early‐onset AD, the NIA‐AA AD dementia criteria have high specificity but lower sensitivity. The high specificity is due to the broad exclusion criteria.