title: A comparison of the brief international cognitive assessment for multiple sclerosis and the brief repeatable battery in multiple sclerosis patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recently, a Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BICAMS) has been developed as an international and standardized brief cognitive test, which is easily performed in everyday clinical practice for neuropsychological assessment in multiple sclerosis (MS). However, we need to gather more information about this tool compared to other neuropsychological batteries. The aim of our study is to compare the performance of BICAMS and Brief Repeatable Battery (BRB) in MS subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  Tests of the BRB and BICAMS were administered to MS patients recruited from 11 Italian MS centres. Cognitive impairment (CI) was defined as the failure on at least two tests (scores below the fifth percentile) on the BRB and as the failure on at least one test of the BICAMS. The agreement between the performances on the two batteries was assessed through Cohen's K statistic. Finally we calculated the effects sizes for each test of the two batteries using Cohen's d.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The two batteries were administered to 192 MS patients (142 women, 50 men; mean age 41.4 ± 10.8 years, mean education 12.3 ± 3.5 years). Mean scores of patients were lower compared to those of healthy subjects in all the cognitive measures examined. Forty-six MS patients were identified as impaired and 48 as unimpaired on both of the batteries, when the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) was included in the analysis. Cohen's K statistic was 0.46 which corresponds to a moderate accord. If the SDMT was excluded from the BRB, 37 MS patients were identified as impaired and 57 as unimpaired on both of the batteries. Cohen's K statistic was 0.3 which corresponds to a poor accord. The SDMT, the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT) 3 and 2 yielded higher d values (SDMT 0.83, PASAT 3 0.65, PASAT 2 0.84).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study confirms the feasibility of BICAMS in everyday clinical practice for the identification of CI and highlights the good psychometric properties of the SDMT.
authors.affiliation: Department of NEUROFARBA, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla 3, Florence, 50134, Italy. claunicco@libero.it.
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authors.lastname: Niccolai
authors.affiliation: Department of NEUROFARBA, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla 3, Florence, 50134, Italy. portilio@tin.it.|Don Gnocchi Foundation, Florence, Italy. portilio@tin.it.
authors.forename: Emilio
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authors.lastname: Portaccio
authors.affiliation: Department of NEUROFARBA, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla 3, Florence, 50134, Italy. begoret@tin.it.
authors.forename: Benedetta
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authors.lastname: Goretti
authors.affiliation: Department of NEUROFARBA, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla 3, Florence, 50134, Italy. hakiki.bahia@unifi.it.|Don Gnocchi Foundation, Florence, Italy. hakiki.bahia@unifi.it.
authors.forename: Bahia
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authors.lastname: Hakiki
authors.affiliation: Department of NEUROFARBA, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla 3, Florence, 50134, Italy. martacely82@gmail.com.
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authors.affiliation: Department of NEUROFARBA, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla 3, Florence, 50134, Italy. luisa.pasto@yahoo.it.
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authors.affiliation: Department of NEUROFARBA, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla 3, Florence, 50134, Italy. isabella.righini@gmail.com.
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authors.affiliation: IRCCS Hospital San Raffaele, Milan, Italy. falautano.monica@hsr.it.
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authors.affiliation: IRCCS Hospital San Raffaele, Milan, Italy. minacapelli.eleonora@hsr.it.
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authors.affiliation: IRCCS Hospital San Raffaele, Milan, Italy. martinelli.vittorio@hsr.it.
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authors.affiliation: University of Rome "Tor Vergata" c/o I.R.C.C.S. "Santa Lucia" Foundation, Rome, Italy. c.incerti@hsantalucia.it.
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authors.affiliation: University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy. ecocco@unica.it.
authors.forename: Eleonora
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authors.affiliation: University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy. gmarrosu@unica.it.
authors.forename: Maria Giovanna
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authors.affiliation: Hospital of Colli Monaldi Cotugno CTO, Naples, Italy. elisa.garofalo@libero.it.
authors.forename: Elisa
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authors.lastname: Garofalo
authors.affiliation: Hospital of Colli Monaldi Cotugno CTO, Naples, Italy. ferdinando.ivano.ambra@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ferdinando Ivano
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authors.lastname: Ambra
authors.affiliation: Hospital of Lanciano, Lanciano, CH, Italy. maurizio.maddestra@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Maurizio
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authors.affiliation: Hospital of Lanciano, Lanciano, CH, Italy. neuromari@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Marilena
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authors.lastname: Consalvo
authors.affiliation: University of Bari, Bari, Italy. rosagemmaviterbo@libero.it.
authors.forename: Rosa Gemma
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authors.affiliation: University of Bari, Bari, Italy. maria.troiano@uniba.it.
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authors.affiliation: Hospital of Barletta, Barletta, Italy. ale.los@libero.it.
authors.forename: Nunzia Alessandra
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authors.lastname: Losignore
authors.affiliation: Hospital of Barletta, Barletta, Italy. gbzimatore@hotmail.it.
authors.forename: Giovanni Bosco
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Zimatore
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Sciences, University "G. d'Annunzio", Chieti, Italy. erikapietrolongo@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Erika
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authors.lastname: Pietrolongo
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Sciences, University "G. d'Annunzio", Chieti, Italy. a.lugaresi@unich.it.
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authors.forename: Debora
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authors.forename: Sergio
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authors.affiliation: Department of NEUROFARBA, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla 3, Florence, 50134, Italy. mariapia.amato@unifi.it.
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mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*