The French Addenbrooke's cognitive examination is effective in detecting dementia in a French-speaking population.

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 dementia with a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of < or = 24/30 was 48.5%, the sensitivity of an MMSE score of < or = 27/30 was 82.5% with a specificity of 72.1%, the sensitivity of an ACE score of < or = 83/100 was 86.6% with a specificity of 70.5% and the sensitivity of an ACE score of < or = 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.