Clinical Utility of Screening Executive Test in the Detection of Executive Dysfunction in Patients with Relapsing- Remitting Multiple Sclerosis

PAGANI F; BAEZ, S; ROCA, M; MARENCO, V; SINAY, V; BRUNO D; TORRALVA, T

Encuentro; 68th AAN Annual Meeting; 2016

Introduction and Objectives: Several studies reported that up to 65% of patients with relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) have cognitive impairment, even at the onset of the disease, being the executive dysfunction one of the de cits reported. While there are several screening tests speci cally designed to detect executive dysfunction, no studies have compared its utility in patients with RRMS. The aim of this study is to evaluate the sensitivity and speci city of diferent screening executive tests for the detection of executive dysfunction in patients with RRMS.Methodology: We evaluated RRMS patients with executive dysfunction (N = 36), RRMS patients without executive dysfunction (N = 20) and controls (N = 44) matched for age, sex and educational level. All subjects were evaluatedwith executive screening test, including the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), the Phonological Fluency, the INECO Frontal Screening (IFS) and the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT). Patients were also evaluated withclassical executive tests. We considered that a patient had executive dysfunction if he scored a detour and a half or more below the control mean on some of the classic group executive tests.Results: Using a cuto􀃗 of 17, the FAB, showed a sensitivity of 72.22% and speci city of 68.18% to detect executive dysfunction in patients with RRMS. The Phonological Fluency with a cutof of 18, showed a sensitivity of 52.83% andspeci city of 67.21%. Using a cutof of 25.50, the IFS showed a sensitivity of 70.27% and speci city of 78.13%. The PASAT with a cutof of 39, showed a sensitivity of 75.00% and speci city of 85.21%.Conclusion: The IFS and PASAT were the most useful tests for the detection of executive dysfunction in RRMS patients.