title: A short version of Rao's Brief Repeatable Battery as a screening tool for cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis.
abstract: Rao's Brief Repeatable Battery (BRB) is the most widely used instrument for cognitive evaluation in multiple sclerosis (MS). We assessed a short version of the BRB in 116 relapsing-remitting participants. We found that the administration of three tests, the Selective Reminding Test, the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test-3 seconds and the Symbol Digit Modalities Test, was able to detect cognitive impairment with a sensitivity of 94%, a specificity of 84%, and an accuracy of 89%. On the basis of these results we developed a screening algorithm requiring 5 to 15 minutes, which may represent a highly sensitive and rapid tool to detect MS-associated cognitive impairment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Florence, Italy. portilio@tin.it
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Portaccio
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Goretti
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zipoli
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Siracusa
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sorbi
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Amato
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000523:psychology*; D020529:Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting / Q000523:psychology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results