Original Research Article Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord 2005;19:15–17 DOI: 10.1159/000080965 The French Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination Is Effective in Detecting Dementia in a French-Speaking Population J.-C. Bier a V. Donckels b E. Van Eyll b T. Claes b H. Slama b P. Fery b M. Vokaer a Departments of a Neurology and b Neuropsychology, Erasme Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium Accepted: April 1, 2004 Published online: September 21, 2004 Jean-Christophe Bier Hôpital Erasme, Service de Neurologie, 3e étage 808, route de Lennik, BE–1070 Bruxelles (Belgium) Tel. +32 2 555 3429, Fax +32 2 555 3942 E-Mail Jean-Christophe.Bier@ulb.ac.be ABC Fax + 41 61 306 12 34 E-Mail karger@karger.ch www.karger.com © 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel 1420–8008/05/0191–0015$22.00/0 Accessible online at: www.karger.com/dem Key Words Dementia W French-speaking population W Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination W MMSE Abstract We evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of our French version of Addenbrooke’s cognitive examination (ACE) to detect dementia in our patient population. One hundred and fifty-eight cases were included in the study. In our patient series, the sensitivity for diagnosing de- mentia with a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of ^24/30 was 48.5%, the sensitivity of an MMSE score of ^27/30 was 82.5% with a specificity of 72.1%, the sensitivity of an ACE score of ^83/100 was 86.6% with a specificity of 70.5% and the sensitivity of an ACE score of ^88/100 was 97.9% with a specificity of 59%. We conclude that the French version of the ACE is a very accurate test for the detection of dementia, and should be widely used in clinical practice. Copyright © 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel Introduction Although dementing disorders are characterized by specific patterns of brain pathology and dysfunction [1], a single test is often insufficient to detect them. Adden- brooke’s cognitive examination (ACE) [2] has been pro- posed as a simple and effective instrument to detect dementia. Here we report our experience with this test and show that the French ACE is effective in detecting dementia in a French-speaking population. Patients and Method Method The ACE was translated into French with some adaptations con- cerning the name- and address-learning and delayed recall test, semantic memory test, word and sentence repetition tests and read- ing tests [2]. These modifications did not alter the number of words in the name and address learning test. The semantic memory test needed cultural adaptation. Length, frequency and grammatical dif- ficulties were taken into consideration in the repetition tests. Length and frequency were taken into consideration in the reading tests. Thereafter, a bilingual expert not familiar with the original ACE made a back translation into English. The new version was very simi- lar to the original one [2] except for the adapted points and could, like the original one, be administered in 15–20 min. The inter-rater reli- ability was then evaluated in 10 consecutive patients admitted to our neurological department. Two investigators (J.-C.B. and M.V.) eval-