Abstract: Objective To investigate the difference of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Basic (MoCA-B) subitem score among different ages in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease(AD).Methods Totally 286 AD patients were recruited from outpatients and inpatients department of Neurology and Community Settings of Fuxing Hospital, from January 2017 to December 2017. Patients were divided into three groups according to their age:51-60(n=57), 61-70(n=112), 71-80(n=117). All the patients were administered with Mini-Mental State Examination(MMSE)and MoCA-B.Results There were no significant difference between three groups in gender, education, MMSE and MoCA-B. Comparing every item of MoCA-B in three groups, the abstraction and similarity task and delayed recall have significant difference(P<0.05). The patients less than 60 get a little higher score in delayed recall than the patients older than 60 (0.5±1.0 vs 0.1±0.4). But the difference of the score in less than one score, so there was not much clinical meaning in memory. For the abstract reasoning task, the patients less than 60 get higher score than the older patients(1.2±1.1 vs 0.7±1.1, 1.3±1.1 vs 0.7±1.1, respectively). The differences of the three groups were significant(P<0.05).Conclusion To interpret the score of every item of MoCA-B, we should pay attention to the possible influences of age, especially for the abstract reasoning task.

Key words: cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease, Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Basic(MoCA-B), aging