Published in:
Open Access
01-12-2014 | Research article
The brief international cognitive assessment for multiple sclerosis (BICAMS): normative values with gender, age and education corrections in the Italian population
Authors:
Benedetta Goretti, Claudia Niccolai, Bahia Hakiki, Andrea Sturchio, Monica Falautano, Eleonora Minacapelli, Vittorio Martinelli, Chiara Incerti, Ugo Nocentini, Monica Murgia, Giuseppe Fenu, Eleonora Cocco, Maria Giovanna Marrosu, Elisabetta Garofalo, Ferdinando Ivano Ambra, Maurizio Maddestra, Marilena Consalvo, Rosa Gemma Viterbo, Maria Trojano, Nunzia Alessandra Losignore, Giovanni Bosco Zimatore, Erika Pietrolongo, Alessandra Lugaresi, Dawn Langdon, Emilio Portaccio, Maria Pia Amato
Published in:
BMC Neurology
|
Issue 1/2014
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Abstract
Background
BICAMS (Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis) has been recently developed as brief, practical and universal assessment tool for cognitive impairment in MS subjects. It includes the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), the California Verbal Learning Test-2 (CVLT2) and the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R) . In this study we aimed at gathering regression based normative data for the BICAMS battery in the Italian population.
Methods
Healthy subjects were consecutively recruited among patient friends and relatives. Corrections for demographics were calculated using multivariable linear regression models. Test-retest reliability was assessed using the Pearson correlation coefficient.
Results
The BICAMS battery was administered to 273 healthy subjects (180 women, mean age 38.9 ± 13.0 years, mean education 14.9 ± 3.0 years). Test-retest reliability was good for all the tests.
Conclusions
The study provided normative data of the BICAMS for the Italian population confirming good test-retest reliability which can facilitate the use of the battery in clinical practice, also for longitudinal patient assessments.