Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia are two of the most common types of degenerative dementia. In conjunction with a complete neuropsychiatric examination, the Executive Interview©, Mini-Mental State Exam, Alzheimer’s Disease Scale, Pick’s Disease Scale and the Informant-Based Questionnaire have been used to distinguish between these two disorders on clinical grounds. In a review of two studies, scores from these rating scales are subjected to receiver operator characteristic curve analysis to determine the cut-off value for each scale which yields the highest sensitivity and specificity with regard to differentiating between Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. Finally, the Informant-Based Questionnaire is discussed and compared to each rating scale to demonstrate the important features and limitations of each.

Keywords:
Alzheimer’s disease, Frontotemporal dementia, Receiver operator characteristic analysis, Sensitivity, Specificity, Diagnosis
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1998
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