[Neuropsychological tests abbreviated and adapted to Spanish speakers: review of previous findings and validity studies for the discrimination of patients with anterior vs. posterior lesions].
BACKGROUND
There is a lack of neuropsychological tests for Spanish-speakers validated by the cerebral location of the injury. Then the antecedents of the present instrument are described.


OBJECTIVE
To study the validity of the battery for the differentiation of healthy subjects versus patients and, in patients, anterior versus posterior telencephalic lesions.


METHODS
37 patients with frontal lesions, 37 with posterior lesions and 148 healthy subjects were studied. The three groups were matched by sex, age, years of study, manual preference, laterality of the injury, type of lesion and time since onset of condition.


RESULTS
The discriminant analysis reached a percentage of correctly predicted cases of 86% for posterior lesions, 85% for anterior lesions, and 99% for healthy subjects. The analysis of the items of the initial interview, only with the group of patients, resulted in a correct prediction of the observations of 90% or over for both lesions. In general, tests which best discriminated anterior from posterior lesions were the ones that worst discriminated anterior lesion from healthy subjects with exception of an easy paired-associated word learning test which turned out to be valid for the discrimination of the three groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Present results demonstrated that this battery of abbreviated tests adapted to Spanish speakers was valid for the discrimination of the three studied groups. Methodological approaches based on objective evaluations and multiple comparisons rather than on clinical appreciation are proposed.
CONICET, CIFFyH U.N.C, Servicio de Neurología y Neurocirugía, Hospital Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina. nsvigliecca@hotmail.com
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Vigliecca
D000328:Adult; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests