Montreal Cognitive Assessment for Evaluating Cognitive Impairment in Multiple Sclerosis: A Systematic Review
Acta Neurologica Belgica
Rosca, E. C., & Simu, M. (2020).
Acta Neurologica Belgica, 120(6), 1307-1321.
This systematic review investigates the accuracy of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment tool (MoCA) for identifying cognitive impairment in adults, 18 years and older, with multiple sclerosis (MS).
<div>The MoCA demonstrates "a high discriminative power for differentiating the MS patients with [cognitive impairment] CI from cognitively intact MS patients or from healthy controls" (p. 10). Across studies, the sensitivity ranged from 0.74 to 0.91 and the specificity ranged between 0.70 to 0.93. The optimal cutoff score for screening varied across studies between 25 or 26; however, this review found that the best ratio of sensitivity to specificity for adults with MS without cognitive complaints was found with a cutoff of 27. The MoCA demonstrates significant correlations to other neuropsychological evaluation tools. While more research is needed, the authors conclude that the MoCA demonstrates potential benefit as a screening test for CI in adults with MS.</div>
