Relationship between the Caregiver's Report on the Patient's Spontaneous-Speech and the Brief Aphasia Evaluation

NORA SILVANA VIGLIECCA

CoDAS

Sociedad Brasilera de Fonoaudiologia

Lugar: San Pablo; Año: 2017 vol. 29

2317-1782

ABSTRACT: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CAREGIVER´S REPORT ON THE PATIENT´S SPONTANEOUS-SPEECH AND THE BRIEF APHASIA EVALUATION Purpose: To study the relationship between the caregiver´s perception about the patient´s impairment in spontaneous speech, according to an item of four questions administered by semi-structured interview, and the patient´s performance in the Brief Aphasia Evaluation (BAE). Methods: One-hundred-and-two right-handed patients with focal brain lesions of different type and location were examined. BAE is a valid and reliable instrument of aphasia. The caregiver´s perception was correlated with the item of spontaneous speech, the total score, and the three main factors of the BAE: The Expression, Comprehension, and Complementary factors. The precision (sensitivity/ specificity) about the caregiver´s perception of the patient´s spontaneous speech was analyzed with reference to the presence or absence of disorder, according to the professional on the BAE item of spontaneous speech. Results: The studied correlation was satisfactory, being greater (higher than 80%) for the following indicators: the item of spontaneous speech, the Expression factor and the total score of the scale; the correlation was a little smaller (higher than 70%) for the Comprehension and Complementary factors. Comparing two cut-off points that evaluated the precision of the caregiver´s perception, satisfactory results were observed in terms of sensitivity and specificity (>70%) with likelihood ratios higher than 3. By using the median as the cut-off point, more satisfactory diagnostic discriminations were obtained. Conclusion: Interviewing the caregiver specifically on the patient´s spontaneous speech, in an abbreviated form, provides relevant information for the aphasia diagnosis.