The short cognitive evaluation battery in cognitive disorders of the elderly--Italian version.

AIMS: To validate the Italian version of the Short Cognitive Evaluation Battery (SCEB), consisting of 4 tests (temporal orientation, five words, clock drawing and verbal fluency) in healthy controls (CONT), patients with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and major depressive disorder (DEP).

METHODS: Twenty-nine AD patients (mean Mini-Mental State Examination, MMSE, score: 22.1 ± 3.1), 27 MCI patients (mean MMSE score: 26.5 ± 2.0), 27 depressed patients (mean MMSE score: 26.9 ± 2.8), and 48 controls (mean MMSE score: 29.7 ± 0.5) were enrolled.

RESULTS: MANCOVA showed highly significant (p < 0.0001) difference among groups. As for total SCEB score, AD were separated from CONT with high accuracy (93%; with sensitivity 93%, specificity 92%, area under ROC curve, AUC, 0.96) and from DEP with satisfying accuracy (84%; with sensitivity 76%, specificity 93%, AUC 0.84). Results in MCI versus CONT comparison yielded more moderate accuracy (80%; with sensitivity 70%, specificity 87%, AUC 0.80), which increased in the subgroup of MCI patients who later converted to AD (85%; with sensitivity 75%, specificity 83%, AUC 0.86). The direct comparison between MCI converters and nonconverters did not yield accurate results.

CONCLUSION: The Italian version of the SCEB is a short (between 6 min in CONT and 12 min in DEP) screening tool in cognitive disorders of the elderly, and is potentially useful in clinical practice.