Telephone based cognitive-behavioral screening for frontotemporal changes in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Our objective was to establish a valid and reliable battery of measures to evaluate frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in patients with ALS over the telephone. Thirty-one subjects were administered either in-person or by telephone-based screening followed by the opposite mode of testing two weeks later, using a modified version of the UCSF Cognitive Screening Battery. Equivalence testing was performed for in-person and telephone based tests. The standard ALS Cognitive Behavioral Screen (ALS-CBS) showed statistical equivalence at the 5% significance level compared to a revised phone version of the ALS-CBS. In addition, the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT) and Center for Neurologic Study-Lability Scale (CNS-LS) were also found to be equivalent at the 5% and 10% significance level, respectively. Similarly, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the well-established Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS) were also statistically equivalent. Equivalence could not be claimed for the ALS-Frontal Behavioral Inventory (ALS-FBI) caregiver interview and the Written Verbal Fluency Index (WVFI). In conclusion, our study suggests that telephone-based versions of the ALS-CBS, COWAT, and CNS-LS may offer clinicians valid tools to detect frontotemporal changes in the ALS population. Development of telephone based cognitive testing for ALS could become an integral resource for population based research in the future.
a Columbia MDA/ALS Research Center, Department of Neurology , Columbia University Medical Center.
Georgia
G
Christodoulou
b Mount Sinai Hospital , New York.
Chris
C
Gennings
a Columbia MDA/ALS Research Center, Department of Neurology , Columbia University Medical Center.
Jonathan
J
Hupf
c Department of Epidemiology , Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University.
Pam
P
Factor-Litvak
d Department of Neurology , University of California , San Francisco , and.
Jennifer
J
Murphy
e New York State Psychiatric Institute & Department of Psychiatry , Columbia University , New York , USA.
Raymond R
RR
Goetz
a Columbia MDA/ALS Research Center, Department of Neurology , Columbia University Medical Center.
Hiroshi
H
Mitsumoto
D000368:Aged; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000150:complications*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D057180:Frontotemporal Dementia / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D008875:Middle Aged; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D013689:Telephone
ALS; FTD; cognitive testing; telephone