Brief assessment of severe language impairments: initial validation of the Mississippi aphasia screening test.
OBJECTIVE
To validate the Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test (MAST) which includes nine sub-scales measuring expressive and receptive language abilities.


METHODS
Evaluation of inpatients admitted to neurology, neurosurgery or rehabilitation units at two local hospitals and who were within 60 days of onset of a unilateral ischemic or haemorrhagic stroke (left hemisphere (LH; n=38); right hemisphere (RH; n=20)). Additional participants were recruited from the community to comprise a non-patient control sample (NP; n=36).


METHODS
Data collection included administration of the MAST and chart review.


RESULTS
The LH group showed more impairment than the RH and NP groups on summary scores. The LH group performed worse than the NP group on all sub-scales. The object recognition and verbal fluency sub-scales did not discriminate the stroke groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Analyses suggest good criterion validity for the MAST in differentiating communication impairments among clinical and control samples.
Nakase-Thompson
R
R
Department of Neuropsychology, Methodist Rehabilitation Center, Jackson, MI 39216, USA. nakase@aol.com
Manning
E
E
Sherer
M
M
Yablon
S A
SA
Gontkovsky
S L T
SL
Vickery
C
C
D001037:Aphasia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D013997:Time Factors