The Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination Revised (ACE-R) and its sub-scores: normative values in an Italian population sample

• Published in: Neurological sciences Vol. 37; no. 3; pp. 385 - 392
• Main Authors: Siciliano, Mattia, Raimo, Simona, Tufano, Dario, Basile, Giuseppe, Grossi, Dario, Santangelo, Franco, Trojano, Luigi, Santangelo, Gabriella
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Milan Springer Milan 01.03.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Age Factors; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Attention; Cognition; Cognition Disorders - diagnosis; Educational Status; Female; Humans; Italy; Language; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Memory; Mental Status Schedule; Middle Aged; Neurology; Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data; Neuroradiology; Neurosciences; Neurosurgery; Orientation; Original Article; Psychiatry; Reference Values; Sex Factors; Space Perception; Young Adult; Normative values; Mild cognitive impairment cognitive dysfunctions; Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination Revised; Normative data; ACE-R
• ISSN: 1590-1874; 1590-3478; 1590-3478
• DOI: 10.1007/s10072-015-2410-z

The Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination Revised (ACE-R) is a rapid screening battery, including five sub-scales to explore different cognitive domains: attention/orientation, memory, fluency, language and visuospatial. ACE-R is considered useful in discriminating cognitively normal subjects from patients with mild dementia. The aim of present study was to provide normative values for ACE-R total score and sub-scale scores in a large sample of Italian healthy subjects. Five hundred twenty-six Italian healthy subjects (282 women and 246 men) of different ages (age range 20–93 years) and educational level (from primary school to university) underwent ACE-R and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that age and education significantly influenced performance on ACE-R total score and sub-scale scores. A significant effect of gender was found only in sub-scale attention/orientation. From the derived linear equation, a correction grid for raw scores was built. Inferential cut-offs score were estimated using a non-parametric technique and equivalent scores (ES) were computed. Correlation analysis showed a good significant correlation between ACE-R adjusted scores with MoCA adjusted scores ( r  = 0.612, p  < 0.001). The present study provided normative data for the ACE-R in an Italian population useful for both clinical and research purposes.