[Development and validation of a short battery of tests for the assessment of aphasia: 'bedside assessment of language'. Its use in a rehabilitation centre].
BACKGROUND
A formal and complete language assessment requires too much time and also tires the patient out during the first recovery stages after brain injury. The aim of this paper is to introduce a bedside screening, short and sensitive to diagnose aphasias in patients with brain injury.


METHODS
The results of the Bedside Assessment of Language (BAL) was studied in 121 aphasic patients and in 77 dysarthric patients after brain injury. The five linguistic areas assessed in this short battery are: spontaneous language, comprehension, repetition, writing and reading. Each area has a maximum of 5 points, and the test has a total score of 25. Statistics tests used were: median test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Fisher's exact test, receiver operating characteristics curves and correlation coefficient.


RESULTS
The BAL showed an excellent internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha coefficient: 0.9419); sensitivity was of 79.3% and specificity of 84.4%.


CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that the BAL has been a potentially useful tool for the diagnose of the type of aphasia and it has been sensitive to evolutionary changes in sub-acute stages of language disorders.
Sabe
L
L
Departamento de Neurología, Instituto de Investigaciones Neurologicas Dr. Raul Carrea (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina. lsabe@fleni.org.ar
Courtis
M J
MJ
Saavedra
M M
MM
Prodan
V
V
de Luján-Calcagno
M
M
Melián
S
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001037:Aphasia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires