[Screening of cognitive impairment in the old and old-old population with the 3-CT scale].

AIM: To determine sensitivity and specificity of the 3-CT scale, a combination of 3 simple and minimum cost tests, for screening purposes in old and old-old patients in comparison to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included 106 patients. Assessment of sensitivity and specificity of neuropsychological testing with ROC-curves was used.

RESULTS: MoCA showed moderate sensitivity (0.65) and specificity (0.78), with cutoffs interval <19. When adjusted for education, the sensitivity increased to 96.7% while specificity decreased to 2.9%. The same result was observed for MMSE (sensitivity 0.65; specificity 0.72). All subtests of 3-CT showed moderate sensitivity and specificity, but the sum of 3 subtest scores (delaying recall in visual memory test, clock drawing test and semantic fluency test) demonstrated good sensitivity (0.833) and specificity (0.944).

CONCLUSION: 3-CT is a simple and effective instrument for screening of cognitive impairment in the old and old-old population.