TY - JOUR
T1 - The 'preliminary neuropsychological battery'. An instrument to grade the cognitive level of minimally responsive patients
AU - Cossa, F. M.
AU - Fabiani, M.
AU - Farinato, A.
AU - Laiacona, M.
AU - Capitani, E.
PY - 1999/8
Y1 - 1999/8
N2 - An early, formalized cognitive evaluation of 'minimally responsive' patients could be important in the planning of their care and rehabilitation as well as in providing a realistic prognosis and studying the modality of the cognitive recovery. A short, bedside, neuropsychologically-oriented test-battery, the Preliminary Neuropsychological Battery, a psychometric tool which enables the cognitive evaluation of these patients and of patients unable to give verbal or complex motor answers, has been devised. The BNP was administered to a sample of 40 head-injured patients and to a sample of 34 healthy subjects. The aim was (i) to evaluate its usefulness, and (ii) to study its correlation with cortical functions as assessed by a more extensive battery. The findings suggest that the BNP is useful for assessing the general cognitive level of head-injured post-comatose patients. It was able to detect patients deserving a wider, analytic, neuropsychological assessment. Attentional defects emerged as an important variable determining the BNP score.
AB - An early, formalized cognitive evaluation of 'minimally responsive' patients could be important in the planning of their care and rehabilitation as well as in providing a realistic prognosis and studying the modality of the cognitive recovery. A short, bedside, neuropsychologically-oriented test-battery, the Preliminary Neuropsychological Battery, a psychometric tool which enables the cognitive evaluation of these patients and of patients unable to give verbal or complex motor answers, has been devised. The BNP was administered to a sample of 40 head-injured patients and to a sample of 34 healthy subjects. The aim was (i) to evaluate its usefulness, and (ii) to study its correlation with cortical functions as assessed by a more extensive battery. The findings suggest that the BNP is useful for assessing the general cognitive level of head-injured post-comatose patients. It was able to detect patients deserving a wider, analytic, neuropsychological assessment. Attentional defects emerged as an important variable determining the BNP score.
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U2 - 10.1080/026990599121322
DO - 10.1080/026990599121322
M3 - Article
C2 - 10901687
AN - SCOPUS:0032885371
VL - 13
SP - 583
EP - 592
JO - Brain Injury
JF - Brain Injury
SN - 0269-9052
IS - 8
ER -