Diagnostic utility of the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE) and its combination with the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R) in a memory clinic-based population

Abstract

In a memory clinic based population, the IQCODE proved sensitive for the diagnosis of dementia but overall diagnostic accuracy was suboptimal. Combining the IQCODE in series with the ACE-R or MMSE greatly improved diagnostic utility.

Test Your Memory test: diagnostic utility in a memory clinic population

“…Standard clinical diagnostic criteria were used for the diagnosis of dementia (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) and dementia subtypes (McKhann et al, 1984(McKhann et al, , 2001Román et al, 1993;McKeith et al, 1996McKeith et al, , 1999Neary et al, 1998;Petersen et al, 1999), as in previous collaborative studies between these units (Hancock and Larner, 2007, 2008, 2009a, 2009b, 2009cLarner and Hancock, 2008). As this was a pragmatic study, patients were not selected according to diagnosis but as they presented to the clinics.…”

“…All patients were administered TYM, independent of, but on the same day as, clinical and neuropsychological assessment, the latter with the MMSE (Folstein et al, 1975) or the ACE-R (Mioshi et al, 2006); both clinics have extensive experience in the use of these tests (Hancock and Larner, 2009b;Larner, 2007Larner, , 2009. TYM was scored according to the scoring guidelines provided by the test authors (Brown et al, 2009).…”

Zarit Burden Interview: pragmatic study in a dedicated cognitive function clinic

“…Unsurprisingly, in view of the large score range for each diagnostic group, ZBI lacks utility as an informant-based cognitive screening instrument, 20 unlike other informant-based scales such as the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE) 21,22 and the AD8. 18,23 The ineluctable corollary of this obser vation is that inferences about caregiver burden cannot be based on patient cognitive scores, and must therefore be assessed independently in each case.…”

How Useful Is the IQCODE for Discriminating between Alzheimer’s Disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment and Subjective Memory Complaints?

“…Despite this widespread research in community samples, only a limited number of studies have investigated the use of the IQCODE in a memory clinic population [20][21][22][23][24] . In this setting, the IQCODE also seems to be able to differentiate between dementia patients and elderly individuals without cognitive deficits.…”