荒木 謙太郎

OBJECTIVE: Non-verbal Screening Test for Aphasia and Dysarthria scores correlate with post-stroke cognitive function; however, their correlations with activities of daily living dependency and home discharge (cognitive function-associated outcomes) remain unclear. We investigated the correlation of these scores with activities of daily living dependency and home discharge outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Disability levels and functional outcomes of 278 inpatients with brain injury (age: 72.8 ± 13.0 years) were evaluated using the modified Rankin Scale. Patients were grouped according to activities of daily living dependency (independent [n = 96; modified Rankin Scale score≤2]) and non-home discharge (n = 126) status. Factors predicting home discharge were analyzed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Cognitive impairment was more prevalent in the activities of daily living-dependent group than in the independent group (odds ratio: 6.34 [95 % confidence interval: 3.57-11.52]; p < 0.001) and in the non-home discharge than in the home discharge group (2.78 [1.65-4.73]; p < 0.001). Non-verbal test scores correlated moderately with activities of daily living independence and home discharge. Age, modified Rankin Scale score, cognitive impairment, and the Screening Test for Aphasia and Dysarthria scores were significantly associated with home discharge in univariate analyses. Only modified Rankin Scale and non-verbal test scores were significantly associated with home discharge in multivariate analysis (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Non-verbal test scores were significantly associated with activities of daily living independence and home discharge in patients with stroke. The non-verbal test, being less influenced by communicative disorders, offers a novel tool for estimating cognitive function.

INTRODUCTION: Evaluation of multiple domains, such as language, articulation, and cognitive function, is frequently required in neurological communicative disorders. The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of a 10-min screening scale for estimating aphasia, dysarthria, and cognitive dysfunction using a multicenter, large-sized consecutive series. METHODS: We conducted a multicenter validation study that included 314 patients with brain injury between February 1 and June 31, 2018, from 20 medical centers across Japan. The Screening Test for Aphasia and Dysarthria (STAD) was developed in Japan in 2009, and a previous smaller-scale retrospective study established its high to moderate validity. All patients had undergone the STAD, and 212 of them underwent the Western Aphasia Battery or Assessment of Motor Speech for Dysarthria. The effect size on all 29 items and receiver operating curves of 3 sections of the STAD were analyzed based on external criteria, which were decided considering the clinical diagnosis of aphasia, dysarthria, and cognitive dysfunction. Correlations between the STAD and reference tests were calculated. RESULTS: The phi coefficients of 23 out of 29 items exceeded the moderate effect size of 0.3 toward the targeted disorder. Overall, there was a good balance between sensitivity (82-92%) and specificity (77-78%), with moderate to large positive and negative likelihood ratios (3.7-4.19 and 0.1-0.23). The Pearson's r between the verbal section and Western Aphasia Battery Aphasia Quotient, the articulation section and Assessment of Motor Speech for Dysarthria, and the nonverbal section and Western Aphasia Battery Nonlinguistic Skills were 0.89, 0.70, and 0.79, respectively. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that the STAD has acceptable content and concurrent validity for the assessment of communicative function in patients with brain injury. This short screening tool can be useful in specific contexts, such as in early bedside investigations, to obtain a quick summary of communicative function prior to the administration of other tests, and in cases where more in-depth testing is not feasible.