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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of most common neurodegenerative diseases, which gradually begins and develops after 65 years old, presenting as progressive and irreversible memory loss and other cognitive decline, and finally causes dementia and disability. Therefore, early diagnosis, timely treatment and effective prevention of AD have been become important clinical and scientific problems. During the period of Twelfth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, our team have engaged in AD diagnosis and treatment for a long time and carried out studies in the field of pathogenesis, epidemiology, screening of risk factors, neuropsychological tests, imaging, biomarkers and early intervention of AD. This paper has summarized these research achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: As a suitable test to screen for Alzheimer's disease (AD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), studies to validate the Chinese version of Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R) are rare. Methods: A total of 151 subjects were recruited and the neuropsychological assessments were employed. One-way analysis of variance and Bonferroni correction were used to compare scores of different psychometric scales. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Cronbach's coefficient α were used to evaluate the reliability of psychometric scales. The validity of ACE-R to screen for mild AD and amnestic subtype of MCI (a-MCI) was assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results: The Chinese ACE-R had good reliability (inter-rater ICC = 0.994; test-retest ICC = 0.967) as well as reliable internal consistency (Cronbach's coefficient α = 0.859). With its cutoff of 67/68, the sensitivity (0.920) and specificity (0.857) were lower than for the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) cutoff (sensitivity 1.000 and specificity 0.937) to screen for mild AD. However, the sensitivity of ACE-R to screen for a-MCI was superior to the MMSE with a cutoff of 85/86. The specificity of ACE-R was lower than that of the MMSE to screen for a-MCI. The area under the ROC curve of ACE-R was much larger than that of the MMSE (0.836 and 0.751) for detecting a-MCI rather than mild AD. Conclusion: The Chinese ACE-R is a reliable assessment tool for cognitive impairment. It is more sensitive and accurate in screening for a-MCI rather than for AD compared to the MMSE. © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]