Background/Aims: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Hong Kong Montreal Cognitive Assessment (HK-MoCA) in patients with cerebral small vessel disease (SVD). Methods: 40 SVD patients and 40 matched controls were recruited. Concurrent and criterion validity, inter-rater and test-retest reliability, internal consistency of the HK-MoCA were examined and clinical observations were made. Results: Performance on the HK-MoCA was significantly predicted by both executive (β = 0.23, p = 0.013) and non-executive (β = 0.64, p < 0.001) composite scores. It differentiated SVD patients from controls (area under the curve = 0.81, p < 0.001) with an optimal cutoff at 21/22. Reliability, internal consistency and clinical utility were good. Conclusion: The HK-MoCA is a useful cognitive screening instrument for use in SVD patients.

Background and Purpose The NINDS-CSN vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) Harmonization working group proposed a brief cognitive protocol for screening of VCI. We investigated the validity, reliability and feasibility of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment 5-minute protocol (MoCA 5-min protocol) administered over the telephone. Methods Four items examining attention, verbal learning and memory, executive functions/language and orientation were extracted from the MoCA to form the MoCA 5-min protocol. One hundred and four patients with stroke or TIA, including 53 with normal cognition (CDR 0) and 51 with cognitive impairment (CDR 0.5 or 1), were administered the MoCA in clinic and a month later, the MoCA 5-min protocol over the telephone. Results Administration of the MoCA 5-min protocol took five minutes over the telephone. Total score of the MoCA 5-min protocol correlated negatively with age (r=-0.36, p<0.001) and positively with years of education (r=0.41, p<0.001) but not with gender (rho=0.03, p=0.773). Total scores of the MoCA and MoCA 5-min protocol were highly correlated (r=0.87, p<0.001). The MoCA 5-min protocol performed equally well as the MoCA in differentiating patients with cognitive impairment from those without (AUC for MoCA 5-min protocol=0.78; MoCA=0.74, p>0.05 for difference; Cohen's d for group difference 0.801.13). It differentiated cognitively impaired patients with executive domain impairment from those without (AUC=0.89, p<0.001; Cohen's d=1.7 for group difference). 30-day test-retest reliability was excellent (Intraclass correlation coefficient=0.89). Conclusions The MoCA 5-min protocol is a free, valid and reliable cognitive screen for stroke and TIA. It is brief and highly feasible for telephone administration.

The Chinese NINDS-CSN VCI protocols are valid and reliable for cognitive assessment in Chinese patients with mild stroke.

This study examined the validity and reliability of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire version (NPI-Q), a proxy-reported format of the interview-based NPI, in assessing neuropsychiatric symptoms in 173 patients with stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) having cognitive impairment. The NPI-Q was validated against the NPI as a gold standard. Informants took approximately 7 minutes to complete the NPI-Q. Bland-Altman analysis revealed a bias of 0.7 points, with 95% limits of agreement between -8.6 and 10.0 between the total symptom scores of the NPI and NPI-Q. The NPI-Q correlated significantly with the NPI in individual and total symptom scores and caregiver distress scores. In predicting presence of symptoms on the NPI, the NPI-Q yielded, on average, sensitivity of 74.1% and specificity of 79.5%. On the NPI-Q, informants tended to overreport symptoms in patients with less severe symptoms but underreport with increasing symptom severity. Internal consistency of the NPI-Q was acceptable (Cronbach's α = 0.756). One-week test-retest reliability of the NPI-Q was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient = .990). The NPI-Q is a valid and reliable instrument for screening neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with stroke and TIA.

Background: We aimed to validate the performance of an MRI-based machine learning derived Alzheimer's Disease-resemblance atrophy index (AD-RAI) in detecting preclinical and prodromal AD.Methods: A total of 62 subjects (mild cognitive impairment [MCI]=25, cognitively unimpaired [CU]=37) underwent MRI, 11 C-PIB, and 18 F-T807 PET. We investigated the performance of AD-RAI at the prespeci ed cutoff of ≥ 0.5 in detecting preclinical and prodromal AD and compared its performance with that of visual and volumetric hippocampal measures.Results: AD-RAI achieved the best metrics among all subjects (sensitivity 0.73, speci city 0.91, accuracy 87.10%) and among MCI subgroup (sensitivity 0.91, speci city 0.79, accuracy 84.00%) in detecting A+T+ subjects over other measures. Among CU subgroup, hippocampal volume (sensitivity 0.75, speci city 0.88, accuracy 86.49%) achieved a higher sensitivity than AD-RAI (sensitivity 0.25, speci city 0.97, accuracy 89.19%) in detecting preclinical AD.Conclusions: AD-RAI aids the detection of early AD, in particular at the prodromal stage. BackgroundDetection of subjects at risk of developing dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and intervention at the early stage provides the greatest opportunity in reducing the increasing dementia burden associated with AD, which is the commonest cause for dementia worldwide. The latest 2018 National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) research framework de ned AD biologically by the presence of 2 core pathologic molecular biomarkers, beta-amyloid (A+) and neuro brillary tau (T+), rather than by the presence of cognitive impairment (1). With this de nition, subjects harboring A+T+ may exhibit a continuum of severity of cognitive impairment, ranging from cognitively unimpaired (CU) (i.e. preclinical AD), to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (i.e. prodromal AD), to dementia (i.e. AD with dementia). The evolution from preclinical to prodromal AD, or from prodromal AD to AD with dementia may take several years and this slow transition provides an excellent window to implement strategies that may prevent conversion to dementia. This shift in paradigm (i.e. from reliance on clinical symptoms to molecular biomarkers, from focusing on dementia to pre-dementia stage) makes having an accurate in-vivo method in detecting AD biomarkers to be of great importance. At present, accurate in-vivo detection of beta-amyloid and neuro brillary tau is feasible with positron emission tomography (PET) and cerebrospinal uid (CSF) analysis. Studies comparing antemortem amyloid and tau PET and CSF analysis of beta-amyloid 1-42 and phosphorylated tau showed excellent correlation with post-mortem amyloid and tau burden (2-4). Both PET and/or CSF are currently considered as the gold standard in-vivo diagnostic tests for preclinical and prodromal AD.Apart from beta-amyloid and neuro brillary tau, the 2018 NIA-AA research framework also considers neurodegeneration (N) as another biomarker for AD (1). However, neurodegeneration is considered a

Background A digital cognitive test can be a useful and quick tool for the screening of cognitive impairment. Previous studies have shown that the diagnostic performance of digital cognitive tests is comparable with that of conventional paper-and-pencil tests. However, the use of commercially available digital cognitive tests is not common in Hong Kong, which may be due to the high cost of the tests and the language barrier. Thus, we developed a brief and user-friendly digital cognitive test called the Electronic Cognitive Screen (EC-Screen) for the detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia of older adults. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the EC-Screen for the detection of MCI and dementia in older adults. Methods The EC-Screen is a brief digital cognitive test that has been adapted from the Rapid Cognitive Screen test. The EC-Screen uses a cloud-based platform and runs on a tablet. Participants with MCI, dementia, and cognitively healthy controls were recruited from research clinics and the community. The outcomes were the performance of the EC-Screen in distinguishing participants with MCI and dementia from controls, and in distinguishing participants with dementia from those with MCI and controls. The cohort was randomly split into derivation and validation cohorts based on the participants’ disease group. In the derivation cohort, the regression-derived score of the EC-Screen was calculated using binomial logistic regression. Two predictive models were produced. The first model was used to distinguish participants with MCI and dementia from controls, and the second model was used to distinguish participants with dementia from those with MCI and controls. Receiver operating characteristic curves were constructed and the areas under the curves (AUCs) were calculated. The performances of the two predictive models were tested using the validation cohorts. The relationship between the EC-Screen and paper-and-pencil Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Hong Kong version (HK-MoCA) was evaluated by the Pearson correlation coefficient. Results A total of 126 controls, 54 participants with MCI, and 63 participants with dementia were included in the study. In differentiating participants with MCI and dementia from controls, the AUC of the EC-Screen in the derivation and validation cohorts was 0.87 and 0.84, respectively. The optimal sensitivity and specificity in the derivation cohorts were 0.81 and 0.80, respectively. In differentiating participants with dementia from those with MCI and controls, the AUC of the derivation and validation cohorts was 0.90 and 0.88, respectively. The optimal sensitivity and specificity in the derivation cohort were 0.83 and 0.83, respectively. There was a significant correlation between the EC-Screen and HK-MoCA (r=–0.67, P<.001). Conclusions The EC-Screen is suggested to be a promising tool for the detection of MCI and dementia. This test can be self-administered or assisted by a nonprofessional staff or family member. Therefore, the EC-Screen can be a useful tool for case finding in primary health care and community settings.

BackgroundAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia in the elderly. It is estimated that the global prevalence of dementia will rise from 24.3 million in 2005 to 81.1 million in 2040. AD has a devastating impact on sufferers, caregivers, their communities and the healthcare system in general. “Di-tan decoction” (DTD) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula frequently used to treat symptoms that are now defined as AD in clinical treatment. However, the existing evidence for recommending DTD in clinical practice derives from studies that were methodologically flawed. In this study, we aim to determine the efficacy and safety of DTD in AD patients based on a rigidly randomized controlled trial. It will provide critical information on sample size and treatment regimen for conducting a full-scale clinical trial of DTD later.Methods/DesignThis study will be a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, add-on trial. After a 2-week run-in period, eligible patients with mild to moderate AD will be recruited and given either DTD or placebo twice daily for 24 weeks with follow-up 6 weeks after the last treatment. An increase of four points or greater on the scores of Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale (ADAD-cog) will be considered as a positive primary outcome. Total scores of the ADAD-cog, the Chinese version of Mini-Mental State Examination (C-MMSE), and the Chinese version of the Disability Assessment for Dementia (C-DAD) score will be used as secondary outcomes. Adverse events will also be reported.DiscussionThis randomized trial will be the first rigorous empirical study on the efficacy of DTD for treating cognitive symptoms in AD patients. Its success will justify and warrant a large-scale clinical trial to further consolidate the evidence for DTD’s efficacy in treating AD.Trial registrationChinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR-TRC-12004548, Date of registration: 22 November 2012)Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13063-015-0716-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Aim We assessed the impact of cerebral white matter lesions (WMLs) on lower urinary tract symptoms in subjects with normal neurological and cognitive function. Methods A cohort of community-dwelling subjects aged ≥65 years were recruited to undergo MRI brain assessment. WMLs were graded using the Fazekas scale from 0 to 3. A separate telephone interview was carried out to assess the urinary symptoms in these subjects using the questionnaire Overactive Bladder-Validated 8-Question Awareness Tool (OAB-V8). Results 800 community-dwelling elderly subjects were recruited to undergo MRI brain. In this cohort, 431 subjects responded to the telephone interview concerning their urinary symptoms. Among the respondents, 21.1% did not exhibit any WML on their MRI brain. Most of the subjects (52.6%) exhibited grade 1 WML. On logistic regression, age was found to be positively correlated with the Fazekas score (correlation coefficient 0.203, p ≤ 0.01). Using a cutoff of 8 on OAB-V8, 22% of the respondents experienced OAB. Presence of WML, hypertension, or diabetes mellitus was not found to be correlated with storage urinary symptoms or OAB-V8 total score. Multiple logistic regression analysis did not show the presence of WML to be associated with the diagnosis of OAB (adjusted OR 1.13, 95% CI 0.65–1.96, p=0.659). Conclusions WML is associated with age and is common in the elderly population. Mild WML is subclinical, with no obvious neurological and urinary symptoms. Our cohort did not demonstrate a relationship between WML and lower urinary tract symptoms.