INTRODUCTION: A formal and complete language assessment requires too much time and also tires the patient out during the first recovery stages after brain injury. The aim of this paper is to introduce a bedside screening, short and sensitive to diagnose aphasias in patients with brain injury. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The results of the Bedside Assessment of Language (BAL) was studied in 121 aphasic patients and in 77 dysarthric patients after brain injury. The five linguistic areas assessed in this short battery are: spontaneous language, comprehension, repetition, writing and reading. Each area has a maximum of 5 points, and the test has a total score of 25. Statistics tests used were: median test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Fisher's exact test, receiver operating characteristics curves and correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The BAL showed an excellent internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha coefficient: 0.9419); sensitivity was of 79.3% and specificity of 84.4%. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the BAL has been a potentially useful tool for the diagnose of the type of aphasia and it has been sensitive to evolutionary changes in sub-acute stages of language disorders.
INTRODUCTION: A formal and complete language assessment requires too much time and also tires the patient out during the first recovery stages after brain injury. The aim of this paper is to introduce a bedside screening, short and sensitive to diagnose aphasias in patients with brain injury. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The results of the Bedside Assessment of Language (BAL) was studied in 121 aphasic patients and in 77 dysarthricpatients after brain injury. The five linguistic areas assessed in this short battery are: spontaneous language, comprehension, repetition, writing and reading. Each area has a maximum of 5 points, and the test has a total score of 25. Statistics tests used were: median test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Fisher's exact test, receiver operating characteristics curves and correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The BAL showed an excellent internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha coefficient: 0.9419); sensitivity was of 79.3% and specificity of 84.4%. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the BAL has been a potentially useful tool for the diagnose of the type of aphasia and it has been sensitive to evolutionary changes in sub-acute stages of language disorders.