Validity of the MemTrax Memory Test Compared to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment in the Detection of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia due to Alzheimer’s Disease in a Chinese Cohort
Xiaolei Liu, Xinjie Chen, Xianbo Zhou, Yajun Shang, Fan Xu, Junyan Zhang, Jingfang He, Feng Zhao, Bo Du, Xuan Wang, Qi Zhang, Weishan Zhang, Michael F. Bergeron, Tao Ding, J. Wesson Ashford, Lianmei Zhong
Abstract
BACKGROUND: A valid, reliable, accessible, engaging, and affordable digital cognitive screen instrument for clinical use is in urgent demand. OBJECTIVE: To assess the clinical utility of the MemTrax memory test for early detection of cognitive impairment in a Chinese cohort. METHODS: The 2.5-minute MemTrax and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) were performed by 50 clinically diagnosed cognitively normal (CON), 50 mild cognitive impairment due to AD (MCI-AD), and 50 Alzheimer's disease (AD) volunteer participants. The percentage of correct responses (MTx-% C), the mean response time (MTx-RT), and the composite scores (MTx-Cp) of MemTrax and the MoCA scores were comparatively analyzed and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves generated. RESULTS: Multivariate linear regression analyses indicated MTx-% C, MTx-Cp, and the MoCA score were significantly lower in MCI-AD versus CON and in AD versus MCI-AD groups (all with p≤0.001). For the differentiation of MCI-AD from CON, an optimized MTx-% C cutoff of 81% had 72% sensitivity and 84% specificity with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.839, whereas the MoCA score of 23 had 54% sensitivity and 86% specificity with an AUC of 0.740. For the differentiation of AD from MCI-AD, MTx-Cp of 43.0 had 70% sensitivity and 82% specificity with an AUC of 0.799, whereas the MoCA score of 20 had 84% sensitivity and 62% specificity with an AUC of 0.767. CONCLUSION: MemTrax can effectively detect both clinically diagnosed MCI and AD with better accuracy as compared to the MoCA based on AUCs in a Chinese cohort.