K Storm Van's Gravesande1, P Calabrese2, A Blaschek3, K Rostásy4, P Huppke5, L Rothe6, V Mall7, J Kessler6, E Kalbe8. 1. Department of Pediatrics, Child and Adolescent Psychosomatics, Technische Universität München, Munich, Heigelhofstr. 63, 81377 München, Germany. Electronic address: karin.storm@gmx.de. 2. Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neurology Unit, Division of Molecular and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Birmannsgasse 8, 4055 Basel, Switzerland. 3. Department of Pediatric Neurology and Developmental Medicine, Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Lindwurmstrasse 4, 80337 Munich, Germany. 4. Pediatric Neurology, Witten/Herdecke University, Children's Hospital Datteln, Dr. Friedrich Steiner Str. 5, 5711 Datteln, Germany. 5. Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Division of Pediatric Neurology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Robert-Koch Strasse 40, 37075 Göttingen, Germany. 6. Department of Neurology, University Hospital Cologne, Kerpenerstr. 62, 50937 Cologne, Germany. 7. Department of Pediatrics, Child and Adolescent Psychosomatics, Technische Universität München, Munich, Heigelhofstr. 63, 81377 München, Germany. 8. Department of Medical Psychology ǀ, Neuropsychology and Gender Studies & Center for Neuropsychological Diagnostics and Intervention (CeNDI), University Hospital Cologne, Kerpenerstr. 62, 50937 Cologne, Germany.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Screening for cognitive impairment (CI), fatigue and also Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (POMS) is of utmost importance in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to establish a new and validated pediatric screening tool "MUSICADO" that is easy to use and time economical. METHODS: 106 patients with POMS aged 12-18 years and 210 healthy controls (HCs) stratified for age and education underwent neuropsychological testing including a screening test "Multiple Sclerosis Inventory of Cognition" for adults and 8 standardized cognitive tests and established scales to assess fatigue and HRQoL. RESULTS: The phonemic verbal fluency task (RWT "s-words"), the Trail Making Test A (TMT-A), and the Digit Span Forward discriminated significantly between patients and HCs (p = 0.000, respectively) and showed the highest proportion of test failure in patients (24.5%, 17.9%; 15.1%, respectively). Therefore, they were put together to form the cognitive part of the "MUSICADO". After applying a scoring algorithm with balanced weighting of the subtests and age and education correction and a cut-off score for impairment, 35.8% of patients were categorized to be cognitively impaired (specificity: 88.6%). Fatigue was detected in 37.1% of the patients (specificity: 94.0%) and loss of HRQoL in 41.8% (specificity 95.7%) with the screening version, respectively. CONCLUSION: The MUSICADO is a newly designed brief and easy to use screening test to help to early identify CI, fatigue, and loss of HRQoL in patients with POMS as cut scores are provided for all three items. Further studies will have to show its usability in independent samples of patients with POMS.
OBJECTIVE: Screening for cognitive impairment (CI), fatigue and also Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (POMS) is of utmost importance in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to establish a new and validated pediatric screening tool "MUSICADO" that is easy to use and time economical. METHODS: 106 patients with POMS aged 12-18 years and 210 healthy controls (HCs) stratified for age and education underwent neuropsychological testing including a screening test "Multiple Sclerosis Inventory of Cognition" for adults and 8 standardized cognitive tests and established scales to assess fatigue and HRQoL. RESULTS: The phonemic verbal fluency task (RWT "s-words"), the Trail Making Test A (TMT-A), and the Digit Span Forward discriminated significantly between patients and HCs (p = 0.000, respectively) and showed the highest proportion of test failure in patients (24.5%, 17.9%; 15.1%, respectively). Therefore, they were put together to form the cognitive part of the "MUSICADO". After applying a scoring algorithm with balanced weighting of the subtests and age and education correction and a cut-off score for impairment, 35.8% of patients were categorized to be cognitively impaired (specificity: 88.6%). Fatigue was detected in 37.1% of the patients (specificity: 94.0%) and loss of HRQoL in 41.8% (specificity 95.7%) with the screening version, respectively. CONCLUSION: The MUSICADO is a newly designed brief and easy to use screening test to help to early identify CI, fatigue, and loss of HRQoL in patients with POMS as cut scores are provided for all three items. Further studies will have to show its usability in independent samples of patients with POMS.
Authors: Laura Rosa; Maria Petracca; Antonio Carotenuto; Pasquale Dolce; Kyrie Piscopo; Francesca Dicé; Francesca Lauro; Antonio Luca Spiezia; Marcello Moccia; Luigi Lavorgna; Carmine Iacovazzo; Giuseppe Servillo; Nelson Mauro Maldonato; Alessandro Chiodi; Vincenzo Brescia Morra; Roberta Lanzillo Journal: J Clin Med Date: 2022-09-04 Impact factor: 4.964