Validity of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and the HIV Dementia Scale in the assessment of cognitive impairment in HIV-1 infected patients

The gold standard for evaluating cognitive impairments in HIV-infected patients is to administer an extensive neuropsychological assessment. This may, however, be time-consuming and hence not always feasible in the clinic. Therefore, several brief screening tools have been developed. This study determined the validity of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the HIV Dementia Scale (HDS) in detecting cognitive impairment using both the Frascati and cognitive impairment, no dementia (CIND) criteria to classify cognitive impairment in HIV-1 infected patients. The MoCA, HDS, and an extensive neuropsychological assessment, covering nine cognitive domains, were administered in a group of 102 HIV-infected patients who were all on cART and virologically suppressed for at least 1 year. Results show that the areas under the curve (AUCs) for both the MoCA and the HDS were statistically significant, using both the Frascati and the CIND criteria as gold standard. However, the AUCs for the MoCA and HDS did not differ significantly, regardless of the used classification criteria (Frascati: z = 0.37, p = 0.35; CIND: z = −0.62, p = 0.27). Sensitivity of both the MoCA and HDS were low for the recommended cutoff scores (Frascati: MoCA (<26) = 0.56, HDS (<11) = 0.26; CIND: MoCA (<26) = 0.55, HDS (<11) = 0.36). Cutoff scores with good sensitivity and adequate specificity could not be determined for both screening instruments. Therefore, the HDS and MoCA are not recommended as sole instruments to diagnose HIV-associated cognitive impairment.