A verb-naming test accurately detects cognitive changes in ALS

Abstract

Verb-naming tests were proposed for detecting cognitive impairment in ALS, although statistical evidence on their clinical usefulness is still lacking. A total of 29 ALS patients and 29 demographic-matched healthy controls (HCs) were administered the Action-Verb-Naming Test (AVNT), a standardized picture-naming task of actions. Patients were also administered the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioral ALS Screen (ECAS), and classified according to Strong et al. (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-frontotemporal spectrum disorder (ALS-FTSD): revised diagnostic criteria. Amyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener. 2017;18:153–4) criteria. The AVNT discriminated ALS patients from HCs (p = 0.026) and yielded high accuracy in detecting cognitive impairments among ALS patients (88% of accuracy; sensitivity = 1; specificity = 0.84; PPV = 0.5; NPV = 1; LR+ = 3.83; LR− = 0), as well as a below-cutoff performance on the ECAS (AUC = 0.74). The AVNT was unrelated to other clinical variables, despite being strongly associated with ECAS total, ALS-specific, Language and Executive scores (r_s = 0.65–0.75). These findings show that verb naming is an accurate test to detect domain-specific cognitive changes in ALS patients, regardless of their disease phenotype.

Keywords:

• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
• frontotemporal degeneration
• verb naming
• language impairment
• biomarker
• dementia
• epidemiology

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for Dr. Sharon Brambilla for her contribution to data collection.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.