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03-06-2022 | Neurorehabilitation | Original Article

Development of an Italian version of the functional communication measures and preliminary observations in patients with severe acquired brain injury and emerging from a prolonged disorder of consciousness

Authors: Francesco De Bellis, Alfonso Magliacano, Cinzia Fasano, Marcella Spinola, Biagio Campana, Anna Estraneo

Published in: Neurological Sciences | Issue 9/2022

Abstract

A proper assessment tool targeting communicative abilities in patients with severe acquired brain injury (sABI), and particularly for patients recovering from prolonged disorders of consciousness (pDoC), is lacking. The Functional Communication Measures (FCM) consists of a series of rating scales, ranging from 1 (least functional) to 7 (most functional), assessing cognitive requirements for communication and communicative abilities in patients with brain injury. Here we presented exploratory data concerning an Italian adaptation of FCM administered to patients with sABI. After the translation into Italian language, the FCM was blindly administered by 2 independent speech therapists to 19 patients (10 males; median age = 58; IQR = 25) admitted to neurorehabilitation unit after sABI with a level of cognitive functioning between 4 and 8. Two further patients who presented a pDoC after sABI and emerged from the minimally conscious state (a 64-year-old female and a 74-year-old female) were also evaluated by means of the FCM, the Coma Recovery Scale—Revised, and the Disability Rating Scale. Inter-rater agreement was almost perfect for attention, memory, and swallowing items, and substantial for communicative-augmentative communication, motor speech, spoken language expression, and spoken language comprehension. Importantly, in the two pDoC patients, the FCM identified two different functioning profiles in the attention, swallowing, motor speech, and spoken language expression scales, notwithstanding the two patients achieved the same scores on scales for functional disability and consciousness level. The FCM might be a promising and easy-to-administer tool to assess communicative functions in patients with sABI, independently from evaluation of functional disability.

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Title: Development of an Italian version of the functional communication measures and preliminary observations in patients with severe acquired brain injury and emerging from a prolonged disorder of consciousness
Authors: Francesco De Bellis
Alfonso Magliacano
Cinzia Fasano
Marcella Spinola
Biagio Campana
Anna Estraneo
Publication date: 03-06-2022
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Keyword: Neurorehabilitation
Published in: Neurological Sciences / Issue 9/2022
Print ISSN: 1590-1874
Electronic ISSN: 1590-3478
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-022-06173-x

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Development of an Italian version of the functional communication measures and preliminary observations in patients with severe acquired brain injury and emerging from a prolonged disorder of consciousness

Abstract

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

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