Cognitive impairments in patients with cerebrovascular risk factors: A comparison of Mini Mental Status Exam and Montreal Cognitive Assessment

Abstract Objective and background Recent evidence suggests that cerebrovascular risk factors are contributing factors, not only to vascular cognitive decline, but also for Alzheimer's disease. The study aim was to compare Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and MMSE tests in subjects with cerebrovascular risk factors. Patients and methods Fifty patients with cerebrovascular risk factors were administrated the MMSE and MoCA tests. Data collected for all subjects and the results were compared. Results Cognitive impairments revealed on both tests were more frequent in females, and correlated with the level of education (for MoCA r  = 0.75, p  = 0.001 and for MMSE r  = 0.662, p  = 0.001). Mean values of MoCA score were significantly lower in patients with two or more cerebrovascular risk factors compared with those with only one risk factor (19.92 ± 5.99 versus 23.81 ± 4.06; p  = 0.049), a finding that was not evidenced by MMSE. Conclusions The most frequent impaired domain in MMSE (for scores both less and more than 26) was attention; but in MoCA the most frequent impaired domains were delayed recall (for scores above 26), and visuo-executive (for scores ≤26), which is a common domain involved in vascular cognitive decline. MoCA may be superior to MMSE in early detection of cognitive decline in patients with vascular risk factors.