Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA): validation study for frontotemporal dementia.

The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a brief instrument developed for the screening of milder forms of cognitive impairment, having surpassed the well-known limitations of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). The aim of the present study was to validate the MoCA as a cognitive screening test for behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (bv-FTD) by examining its psychometric properties and diagnostic accuracy. Three matched subgroups of participants were considered: bv-FTD (n = 50), Alzheimer disease (n = 50), and a control group of healthy adults (n = 50). Compared with the MMSE, the MoCA demonstrated consistently superior psychometric properties and discriminant capacity, providing comprehensive information about the patients' cognitive profiles. The diagnostic accuracy of MoCA for bv-FTD was extremely high (area under the curve AUC [MoCA] = 0.934, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.866-.974; AUC [MMSE] = 0.772, 95% CI = 0.677-0.850). With a cutoff below 17 points, the MoCA results for sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and classification accuracy were significantly superior to those of the MMSE. The MoCA is a sensitive and accurate instrument for screening the patients with bv-FTD and represents a better option than the MMSE.