The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS): Utility in detection and characterization of mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease.

Current diagnostic criteria for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) require standardized tests that are capable of measuring a range of neurocognitive abilities in healthy elderly individuals and sensitive to detect change over time. There currently is no clearly-established "gold standard" for this purpose. The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) is a widely used neuropsychological test battery for the clinical diagnosis/tracking of dementia also recently incorporated into clinical trials of new investigational medications for AD treatment. The RBANS has a number of design features that suggest possible utility in diagnosis/tracking of MCI. Eighty-one patients with MCI completed the RBANS and their scores were compared with 81 demographically matched healthy controls. RBANS Total Scale scores in both groups were normally distributed, demonstrating no floor/ceiling effects. The MCI group was most impaired on the Delayed Memory Index (DMI). Receiver operating characteristic analyses reflected good discrimination, with an area under the curve of 0.88 for the Total Scale score and 0.90 for the DMI score. The profile of performance for the MCI group was similar to that previously reported for mild AD patients. The RBANS may be a suitable neurocognitive battery for the detection and tracking of MCI presumed to be due to AD.