title: Use of the frontal assessment battery in evaluating executive dysfunction in patients with Huntington's disease.
abstract: The frontal assessment battery (FAB) is a bedside cognitive scale designed to measure executive functions. Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor, behavioral, and cognitive dysfunction. The aim of this study was to check the validity of the FAB for the evaluation of cognitive impairment in patients with HD. Forty-one patients diagnosed with HD and 53 healthy controls matched by education, sex and age were evaluated with a validated Brazilian version of the UHDRS, the VFT, the SDMT, the SIT, the MMSE, and the FAB. The diagnosis of HD was made by DNA analysis. FAB scores were lower in patients than in the controls (p < 0.001) and had significant correlations with the VFT (r = 0.79; p < 0.05), the SDMT (r = 0.80; p < 0.05), the SIT (r = 0.72; p < 0.05), the MMSE (r = 0.83; p < 0.05), the FCS (r = 0.79; p < 0.05) and the motor section of the UHDRS (r = -0.80; p < 0.05). The FAB differentiated between HD patients in the initial and later stages of the disease. The one-year longitudinal evaluation revealed a global trend toward a worsening in the second score of the FAB. The results demonstrate that the FAB presents good internal consistency and also convergent and discriminative validity; therefore it is a useful scale to assess executive functions and to evaluate cognitive impairment in patients with HD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences and Behavior Sciences, Ribeirão Preto School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, Campus Universitário Monte Alegre, Ribeirão Preto, SP 14048-900, Brazil.
authors.forename: Guilherme Riccioppo
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.forename: Carolina Pinto
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Souza
authors.forename: Roberto Satler
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Cetlin
authors.forename: Daniel Sabino
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.forename: Marcio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pena-Pereira
authors.forename: Liliana Tiemi
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Ujikawa
authors.forename: Wilson
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Marques
authors.forename: Vitor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tumas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D004522:Educational Status; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000150:complications*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012372:ROC Curve; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult