Validation of Slovenian version of ADAS-Cog for patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.

INTRODUCTION Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of neurodegenerative dementia where the most prominent cognitive impairment is memory loss. Screening tests are valuable tools for detecting cognitive impairment. One such test is the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog) which consists of 11 tasks. The main goal of our study was to validate the Slovenian version of the ADAS-Cog for detecting mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD patients. METHODS Our sample included 128 participants: 61 healthy controls, 32 people with MCI, and 35 with AD. All participants were evaluated with the Slovenian translation of ADAS-Cog. RESULTS The optimal cut-off for the ADAS-Cog for MCI was 10/11 points. The sensitivity was 88%, specificity 85% and likelihood ratio 6. The optimal cut-off for AD was 11/12 points. Sensitivity was 100%, specificity 95% and likelihood ratio 20. CONCLUSION The obtained cut-off values are comparable to the results from similar validation studies. We can conclude that the ADAS-Cog is a reliable and valid tool for identifying people with MCI and AD from among healthy controls in the Slovenian population.