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In this study, we demonstrated the pervasiveness of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) among a selection of Japanese patients as well as evaluated and compared the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the International HIV Dementia Scale (IHDS) for use as a screening tool among combination anti-retroviral therapy (cART)-naïve and cART experienced patients. The MMSE and the IHDS have both been used as HAND screening tests around the world with variable success. It has been reported the increased usage of cART the utility of these screening tests may have been diminished due to the decreased severity of impairment and the altered pattern of neurocognitive impairments in cART era HAND patients. It is therefore possible the MMSE and the IHDS may still be useful among cART-naïve patients even in the cART era. However, only one study has investigated and compared the screening results of the IHDS among cART-naïve and cART experienced patients. All HIV positive patients who visited, or were admitted, to the Ryukyu University Hospital between January 2009 and March 2014 were evaluated for inclusion. Selected patients (n = 49) had data without omission for all tests. The overall prevalence of HAND in our cohort was 44%. The area under the curve (AUC), for all subjects using the MMSE and the IHDS, were 0.60 and 0.69, respectively. However, the AUC among cART-naïve patients were 0.58 and 0.76 for the MMSE and the IHDS, respectively. Whereas, cART experienced patients had an AUC of 0.60 and 0.61, respectively. Overall, the MMSE demonstrated a poor screening ability for HAND, regardless of cART usage (the cut-off value of 27 had a Youden's J-Index of 0.1, in all groups). Alternatively, the IHDS was moderately useful for HAND screening among cART-naïve patients (the cut-off value of 11 had a Youden's J-Index of 0.4), but performed poorly as a screening test among cART experienced patients (the cut-off value of 11 had a Youden's J-Index of 0.1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]