SHBC1257

H.S.M.NG¹, L.G.CHAN¹, L.MOHAPATRA¹, O.H.CHAN¹, N.D.LIM¹

Tan Tock Seng Hospital¹

Patients who suffer from strokes also often also experience vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) as a result. The present study aims to validate Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), to determine the utility of these tools for screening for VCI in acute post-stroke patients in a local Singaporean setting.

The eligibility criteria consisted of patients who experienced a stroke the past 30 days and did not currently have delirium, aphasia, mental illnesses or history of substance abuse. Patients were recruited from Tan Tock Seng Hospital and they were administered the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and the Clinical Dementia Rating scale for the presence of cognitive impairment.

A total of 131 participants were recruited for the study. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment had good internal consistency (α=0.82). The diagnostic accuracy for MoCA was acceptable with the area under the ROC curve at .77. The MoCA with a cutoff score ≥ 24 had the best screening performance in terms of sensitivity (65.7%) and specificity (73.8%).

The MoCA has good diagnostic accuracy and psychometric properties which make it a convenient tool for screening for post-stroke cognitive impairment. Future studies could focus on longitudinal outcomes or practice effects related to repeated testing of the MoCA on the acute stroke population.