It includes tasks such as trail making test – part B, cube copying, clock drawing, naming, digit span backwards and forwards, serial subtraction, selective attention, sentence repetition, phonemic word fluency, verbal abstraction, a 5-word learning and delayed recall task, and spatial and temporal orientation. Completion time is approximately 10 to 15 minutes and a maximum of 30 points can be PF-04217903 obtained. The ability of the MoCA to screen for cognitive impairment in HD patients was to be evaluated through the comparison to a wellknown screening test, the MMSE, and a detailed neuropsychological test battery. Given that our emphasis lay on the evaluation of the MoCA, detailed group analyses, such as correlation analysis, were not performed with the MMSE and the detailed neuropsychological battery. The MMSE is a ten-minute screening test including questions to spatial and temporal orientation, immediate and delayed recall, language ability and oral command comprehension, serial subtraction and tasks to visuospatial ability. Here the German adaptation was used for all participants. Given that cutoff values are population specific, several other studies have determined lower values in different populations, e.g. a cut-off of 23.5 in a population with MCI and of 21/22 in a population with cerebral small vessel disease. With a good sensitivity and specificity our findings are consistent with previous research, where the MoCA’s sensitivity in detecting cognitive impairment ranged from 56% to 100%, while specificity varied between 29% and 87%, depending on the study population. More specifically, in the detection of vascular cognitive impairment the MoCA presented a specificity of 68% and lower sensitivity of 56% in a population with silent cerebral infarction. The detailed cognitive assessment showed a distinct difference in achievement between groups. This tendency was equally present in the MoCA results, whereas performance did not differ between groups for the MMSE. The prevalence of cognitive impairment of 70% in this cohort, as classified by the testing battery, corresponds to the levels of cognitive dysfunction stated in previous studies with larger cohorts of dialysis patients. The results presented by the MMSE equally match previous characterizations of CKD patient cohorts, where the level of cognitive dysfunction was measured at 30% when only using the MMSE as a diagnostic measure. The prevalence of cognitive dysfunction in this patient cohort appears, therefore, to be similar to previous findings and allows the assumption that it is representative for this population. Correlation analysis showed a strong relationship between MoCA results and the detailed neuropsychological testing, especially for memory and executive functions, which may suggest good diagnostic ability in these areas.