Clinical assessment of Alzheimer's disease
Citation Manager Formats
Make Comment
See Comments

This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.
The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) was established in 1986 to develop standardized methods to evaluate persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and gather clinical, neuropsychological, and neuropathologic information about this illness.
CERAD clinical battery. The clinical assessment protocol(table 1) was designed to provide clinicians with the minimum information necessary to make a confident diagnosis of AD.1 The battery includes reliable and validated measures or those of time-honored value. Information is obtained through semistructured interviews with the patient and an informant, a general physical and neurologic examination of the patient, and brief cognitive scales. Questions are asked regarding prior illnesses and injuries and symptoms of depression. Other questions cover the history of possible symptoms of dementia, medications that might contribute to such symptoms, and duration of the dementing process. We administer a modified Blessed Rating Scale for Dementia2 to determine informant-reported changes in instrumental and basic activities of daily living and the Short Blessed Test3 to measure orientation, memory, and concentration. We evaluate the patient's language, calculation, and visuospatial performance. Laboratory studies include a routine hemogram and biochemical screen, thyroid function test, and vitamin B-12 level. Neuroimaging of the brain by either CT or MRI is required. A protocol for obtaining and reading neuroimages has been developed.4 Global severity of dementia is staged in accordance with the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale.5(With evaluation of the cases until death, the stages assessed by the CDR have been validated and expanded to include profound [coded as 4] and terminal[coded as 5].)6 Diagnostic criteria for AD are those proposed by the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke/Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association(NINCDS/ADRDA)7 modified to require memory loss of at least 12 months' duration (instead of 6 months), and …
AAN Members
We have changed the login procedure to improve access between AAN.com and the Neurology journals. If you are experiencing issues, please log out of AAN.com and clear history and cookies. (For instructions by browser, please click the instruction pages below). After clearing, choose preferred Journal and select login for AAN Members. You will be redirected to a login page where you can log in with your AAN ID number and password. When you are returned to the Journal, your name should appear at the top right of the page.
AAN Non-Member Subscribers
Purchase access
For assistance, please contact:
AAN Members (800) 879-1960 or (612) 928-6000 (International)
Non-AAN Member subscribers (800) 638-3030 or (301) 223-2300 option 3, select 1 (international)
Sign Up
Information on how to subscribe to Neurology and Neurology: Clinical Practice can be found here
Purchase
Individual access to articles is available through the Add to Cart option on the article page. Access for 1 day (from the computer you are currently using) is US$ 39.00. Pay-per-view content is for the use of the payee only, and content may not be further distributed by print or electronic means. The payee may view, download, and/or print the article for his/her personal, scholarly, research, and educational use. Distributing copies (electronic or otherwise) of the article is not allowed.
Letters: Rapid online correspondence
REQUIREMENTS
You must ensure that your Disclosures have been updated within the previous six months. Please go to our Submission Site to add or update your Disclosure information.
Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment.
If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored:
You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid
and apply to letter.
Submission specifications:
- Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
- Submissions should not have more than 5 authors. (Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article)
- Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
- Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
- Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.
You May Also be Interested in
Dr. David E. Vaillancourt and Dr. Shannon Y. Chiu
► Watch
Related Articles
- No related articles found.
Alert Me
Recommended articles
-
ARTICLES
The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD).Part XI. Clinical milestones in patients with Alzheimer's disease followed over 3 yearsD. Galasko, S.D. Edland, J. C. Morris et al.Neurology, August 01, 1995 -
Articles
The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD). Part X. Neuropathology Confirmation of the Clinical Diagnosis of Alzheimer's DiseaseM. Gearing, S. S. Mirra, J. C. Hedreen et al.Neurology, March 01, 1995 -
Article
Clinical and neuropsychological differences between patients with earlier and later onset of Alzheimer's diseaseA CERAD analysis, part XIIE. Koss, S. Edland, G. Fillenbaum et al.Neurology, January 01, 1996 -
The CERAD Experience: Articles
CERAD publications 1988-1997et al.Neurology, September 01, 1997