Aim of the study: To validate the MMSE in Greece.

Materials and Methods: 151 subjects took part in the study—64 non-demented subjects (42 males and 22 females) and 87 demented patients (44 males and 43 females), suffering from mild to severe dementia of various types (Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and dementia secondary to other causes). The demented patients' age was 68.05 ±.72 years (mean ± standard deviation), their education 5.71 ± 2.95 years. The normal subjects' age was 68.57 ± 10.32 years and education was 6.18 ± 3.20 years. The diagnosis was made according to the DSM-IV and the NINCDS-ADRDA diagnostic criteria.

Results: MMSE appeared to be valid during test and retest with a Spearman's coefficient p = 0.98 (p < 0.001). At the score level of 23/24, sensitivity is 90.80, specificity 90.62 and positive predictive value (PPV) of 92.94.

Conclusion: The present study confirms the MMSE score 23/24 as a valid cutoff level for the diagnosis of dementia in Greece.