Argentinian/Chilean validation of the Spanish-language version of Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination III for diagnosing dementia.

Background: The Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination III (ACE-III), an adaptation of the ACE cognitive screening test, has been demonstrated to have high sensitivity and specificity in detecting cognitive impairment in patients with dementia and other neurological and psychiatric disorders. Although the Spanish-language version of the ACE-III has already been validated in Spain, it is yet to be validated in Latin America. The aim of this study was to validate the ACE-III test in an Argentinean and Chilean population.

Methods: ACE-III was administered to 70 patients with Alzheimer disease, 31 patients with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, and a control group of 139 healthy volunteers. Participants were recruited at centres in both countries.

Results: The Spanish-language version of ACE-III was found to have good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.87). We found significant differences in total ACE-III scores between patients with Alzheimer disease and controls (p< .05) and between patients with Alzheimer disease and bvFTD (p< .05). With a cut-off point of 86, 98.6% of AD patients, 83.9% of behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia patients, and 84.2% of controls were correctly classified.

Conclusions: This study shows that the Spanish-language version of ACE-III continues to be an effective tool for detecting cognitive dysfunction in patients with dementia.